Naruto: Hell's way of thanks
by Shika-E.S.W
Summary: Desperate to set things straight 25 year old Naruto returns to the past after his teammates cause the destruction of Konoha...full summary inside -Time travel!- Good Itachi! No Bashing's! well there is a bit at the start- but its over, New Summary!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, not now not ever, because it would be too troublesome if I did own it.**

'_Thinking'_

"Talking"

"**Kyuubi Talking"**

'_**Kyuubi thinking'**_

"_**Inner Sakura Thinking"**_

"**Inner Sakura Talking"**

**Jutsu's **

*actions*

**Summary:**

**25 year old Naruto returns to the past after Sasuke and Sakura band together resulting in the destruction of Konoha. Desperate to set things straight and to stop the inevitable, Naruto must go through blood sweat and tears to make it happen. But what happens when a stranger enters Naruto's life, messing Naruto's plans for the future, what happens when the seal starts to weaken? What will happen when Naruto has to make the most difficult decision in all the years he has lived? Will he be able to reach his dreams and stop this madness, or will he get lost in the game and perish in hell.**

(crappy summary I know)

* * *

**Prologue:**

**"Are you sure kit?"**

"Yeah, I'm sure"

A blond 25 year old male stood looking down upon the ruins of what was once the greatest of the five shinobi nations in the world. Naruto let a clear diamond of liquid slip down his cheek and fall to the ground, as he remembered all the smiling faces of his precious people the people who despised him the people who he loved and cherished no matter what. They were all gone, and he was at fault for it. Kyuubi nodded and started chanting in an unknown language, it was then that everything went black for our blond hero.

* * *

**Naruto: Hell's Way of Thanks**

**Chapter 1: Looking back**

**Shika XD**

Naruto woke up finding himself in an apartment he hadn't been in, in at least 10 years, '_Kyu-kun? How far back did you send us?'_ Naruto waited a few seconds before his tenant replied.** "12 years exactly, kit"** Naruto pondered for a moment, quickly doing the math, '_That means today is the day we get sorted out into our teams…_' Naruto sighed before glancing at his alarm clock.

"…5 am sigh, better get up" Naruto moved towards the familiar bathroom and got ready to take a shower, his mind wondered on the 'recent' events that played in his mind. Sighing again Naruto shut off the water and stepped out of the shower drying himself off, and moved towards his closet to meet a sea of orange.

Naruto groaned and shuddered, Kyuubi rolled around in his cage laughing, "I forgot about these, oh man…damn villagers, trying to get me killed"

Naruto sighed for the millionth time this morning and put on a simple black t-shirt and the orange pants of his attire. Leaving his jacket Naruto grabbed his frog wallet and stepped out of the apartment, walking down the streets of Konoha, which were empty.

Naruto went around searching for some decent clothing, having found out a 'long' time ago that the villagers were still asleep in the mornings and didn't pay attention to what they were doing or who exactly came in and out of their shop. The blonde entered shops with ease and without worry of being cursed at or having things thrown at him.

He strolled around the shop looking for simple yet comfortable and effective shinobi clothing, in the end he got a pair of ANBU pants, a sleeveless plain red top; Gathering five more of the same type of clothing. He paid for the clothing and continued his way down the road towards (in his opinion) one of the best weaponry shops in Konoha.

Upon entering the store he was bombarded by Konoha's finest pieces of weaponry, all sorts of kunai's, hand-less and twin bladed as well as Fuma shuriken, Dai shuriken and the standard academy shuriken. Trench knives and metal wires filled the shelves, as well as exploding notes, smoke bombs, weapon scrolls, weights of all sizes, soldier pills and makibishi (senbon needles).

The walls were practically painted with swords and katana of all sizes and styles and that was only a quarter of what was in the shop. Naruto smiled to himself and went around the shop gathering new weaponry, gathering all he needed he paid for the items and left the shop and headed back to his apartment with a smile on his face.

Naruto unlocked the apartment door and moved towards his dressing table and pulled out a needle and some gold thread, he picked through the bags of new items and pulled out all of his red shirts, grabbing one he quickly set to work glancing at the clock every now and then.

Finishing he set the red shirt down on his bed and admired his work. Naruto smirked, the plain red shirt now had gold embroidering around the sides and edges, and right in the middle was a golden shadow of a fox, its nine tails flying freely behind it. The creatures body low as if ready to pounce and one front leg in front of the other, growling at an unknown predator.

Naruto pulled the shirt on then the pants, he gathered his weapons and set them in the many, many pockets he had, he put a genjutsu on the pockets so that all the weapons appeared not to be their.

He put his forehead protector around his neck, pulled his now black shinobi sandals on and moved towards his wardrobe, gathering all his orange jumpsuits and dumping them on the floor before using a simple Katon jutsu to incinerate them all. Moving back towards the closet he pulled out a long white cloak with red flames coming out of the bottom,

"I remember oji-san gave me this" Naruto sighed and pulled it on.

Taking another glance at the clock he found it was still early, shrugging Naruto made his way across rooftops towards the academy slowly taking his time and taking in the soft breeze that made its way through his hair and made his cloak fly behind him. Landing at the entrance he moved towards his classroom and took his usual seat at the classroom being the first one here he put his feet up on the table leaned back on his chair and closed his eye's falling into a light sleep, what seemed like seconds later he woke up by a chakra signature coming towards the room.

Closing his eye's again Naruto heard the sound of a door sliding open and then a crash almost immediately followed, Naruto opened a lazy eye and saw Iruka standing their shocked and a little flustered. Naruto grinned his usual flashy grin

"Ohaiyo, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said in his unusually loud voice, Iruka regaining composure smiled back a Naruto and returned the greeting.

"Ohaiyo, Naruto-kun" Iruka's eye's wandered over Naruto's new wardrobe and fixed his eye's on the golden nine-tailed fox that Naruto engraved into the shirt. His eyes widened then softened, he let a small smile creep over his features, Naruto gave him a grin and then went back to relaxing, leaving Iruka to do whatever it was he did.

It wasn't long before the whole class was filled with students, (Iruka stepped out of the class again to tend to some business he had). Many were looking at Naruto wandering why he was there, others wandering about his new wardrobe, Naruto was getting a little annoyed at being the centre of attention and hearing the whispers that went around the room. It was not until Shikamaru approached him that the whispers stopped and everyone listened, "Oi, Naruto, what the hell are you doing here? Only those who have passed are supposed to be here."

Naruto opened an eye and looked up at the Nara, "Look at the forehead protector genius." Shikamaru resumed his usual 'can't be bothered' stance "Tch, troublesome" and walked away.

Just then the door burst open and two girls fought to get through the door, both entering the pink haired kunoichi exclaimed "HA! I beat you Ino-pig"

The blonde girl turned to face her 'rival' and ex-best friend, "No way forehead girl my toe entered before you and your forehead did!" Naruto scowled upon the arrival of the pink haired girl, suppressing a strong amount of killer intent intended for the girl and went back to resting, that is until said girl came rushing towards him

"Oi, Naruto baka, move your ass I want to sit next to Sasuke-kun!" Naruto looked next to him and indeed their was Sasuke brooding as usual, raising an eye-brow, Naruto closed his eye's and went back to his daydreaming ignoring the fact that nearly every girl in the class was in front of both him and Sasuke fighting over who was going to sit down next to 'their' Sasuke-kun.

That is they were until Sakura sent out a killer intent that could scare the Hokage away, all the girls scattered and Sakura turned to claim her prize only to find Naruto in the way. "Naruto, move I want to sit next to Sasuke-kun" She screamed, Naruto cringed at the level of her voice, but made no sign that he was moving any time soon.

This unfortunately did not sit too well with Sakura "Naruto baka! MOVE!" Naruto continued to ignore her until she snapped, Sakura moved to punch Naruto, Naruto lifted his arm lazily and caught the punch.

He got a good hold on her hand almost crushing it, he opened his eye's to reveal the coldest blue eye's in the world "Don't touch me" His voice dripped with hate and anger it sounded almost demonic.

"If your oversized forehead hasn't deterred your capability of seeing then you wouldn't have trouble seeing an empty chair on the other side of the brooding teme-" Sasuke scowled at the comment "Also if you don't quiet down I'm pretty sure that everyone present will go deaf because of your unnatural banshee-like voice" He said in a teasing tone.

Sakura looked about to be on the verge of tears, everyone was quiet and now staring at Naruto in shock, Naruto by now had let go of Sakura and had gone back to daydreaming and reminiscing. It wasn't until Iruka came in and tolled Sakura to sit down that everything went back to normal, Iruka congratulated everyone for graduating and started setting them into their teams,

"Team one-" Naruto tuned out after that knowing what Iruka was going to say, he went back into a sitting position and laid his head down on the desk. "Team seven Haruno Sakura (Sakura lifted her head), Uchiha Sasuke (Sasuke didn't care, Sakura went into her fan-girl mode), and Uzamaki Naruto…"

Everyone looked over to Naruto to see how he would react, Sakura looked over at Naruto in anger, Naruto however didn't show any sign that he had heard, that was probably because he was asleep.

The class sweat-dropped "NARUTO! Pay attention!" Naruto opened his eyes and looked his sensei sleepily "did you say something Iruka-sensei?" everyone fell of their chairs and then regained their composure just as quickly.

"NARUTO! Pay attention when I'm talking to you!" Iruka screamed, only to find that Naruto….had fallen asleep…again?

Iruka turned red from anger and threw a chalk duster at Naruto, upon instinct Naruto dodged the duster without effort, shocking many. "ne, ne, I'm up, I'm up" Naruto mumbled something the rest of the class couldn't hear and went back to his seat.

"Now as I was saying, Naruto you're on team seven and your teammates will be Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke" Everybody was ready for a reaction from the blonde male but were surprised when none came, many thinking that the blonde had fallen asleep again turned to look at him but were surprised when they saw he was still awake.

After a minute of silence, Iruka moved on with the other teams, Naruto still having everyone's attention,

"All right everyone wait here for your jounin instructors" Iruka said as he left the class room, not long after every student had been taken by their instructors, except team seven, an hour passed and still their sensei hadn't shown, not that Naruto had expected any better.

Getting fed up of waiting Naruto exited the classroom from the window and jumped, Sasuke and Sakura running to the window wondering what the hell the blonde was thinking only to see him running down the side of the building and soon jumping over the rooftops out of sight.

'_Damn that stupid sensei of mine! What the hell is it with him and keeping a reputation of coming late of all things_' Naruto headed for the cemetery where he knew his sensei was, when Naruto arrived at the cemetery he indeed found his sensei there.

The silvered-haired man was looking over a tombstone, Naruto sighed making his presence known, he walked over to his sensei who looked up, Naruto kept walking knowing his sensei would recognize him immediately, he grabbed Kakashi by the back of his shirt and began dragging him back towards the academy.

Kakashi being confused as to how his student found him shrugged and pulled out a little orange book, which made him giggle a perverted giggle, it was like that the whole way through the village, they entered the academy and then opened the classroom door to find a still brooding Sasuke and a fan-girlish Sakura.

Both looked up when they heard the door open, Naruto came in dragging Kakashi behind him, Naruto let go of Kakashi who dropped to the floor, still giggling. Kakashi got off of the floor and put the book away. He turned to face his students; he set his eyes on a fuming Sakura, brooding, but equally fuming Sasuke and a bored looking Naruto.

Kakashi studied his students with an up-turned 'U' of an eye indicating hat he was smiling, "Hmm, how can I say this. My first impression of you is…" both Sasuke and Sakura waited to hear what he was going to say, but immediately fell face first when they heard it. "….I don't like you".

Naruto just snorted and gave a huge grin, Kakashi smiled back a Naruto. "Meet me up on the roof" with that Kakashi 'poofed' away, Naruto walked out of the door towards the door, taking the stairs up he heard Sasuke and Sakura behind him. Once they were all settled down, Kakashi was sitting down in front of his students, Sasuke was sitting in between Naruto and Sakura, Naruto was on Sasuke's right and Sakura was on his left.

"Okay…let's begin with some introductions." Sakura, with great effort, tore her eye's away from Sasuke and faced her teacher "What do you want to know?" she asked

"How about…your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies stuff like that"

"How about you go first sensei and show us" Sakura said in her oh so innocent voice. "Ohh….me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have many likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future…? Well, I have a lot of hobbies"

'_All we learnt was his name_'

Ran through Sasuke's and Sakura's heads, Naruto's was along the lines of '[/I wonder if I still have my ramen coupons...mmm, ramen/]' *Chibi Naruto Drools*

"Okay, pinky you first" Sakura ignored the comment and introduced herself "My name is Hanuro Sakura the thing I like is [Glances at Sasuke]…Well the person I like is [Glances at Sasuke again]….Umm, my dream for the future is.… [looks at Sasuke again and squeals like a fan-girl], I hate Naruto baka!"

Naruto ignored her, "My hobby..." she went on….and never finished since she looked at Sasuke and squealed a squeal that ruled all others. The rest of team 7 had massive raindrops appear on the back of their heads, as Sakura went into her fan-girl mode.

'_Yay! I get a fan-girl, next thing you know we're all dead on our first mission_' Kakashi thought dully.

"Alright….you the brooding one next" Sasuke glared at Kakshi but went on to introduce himself "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are tons of things I dislike but I don't really like anything, and….I don't really want to use the word dream, but more of an ambition, the resurrection of my clan…..and to kill a certain man"

_'I thought as much'_

_'Cool…'_

_'Idiot'_

"Okay you next blondie" Kakashi had been looking forward to Naruto's introduction ever since Naruto had found him.

" My name is Uzamaki Naruto, my likes are ramen, my dislikes are the three minutes you have to wait for ramen to cook, my hobbies are training, reading, cooking, and pranks. My dream…is also sort of an ambition…"now having Kakashi's attention Naruto continued "I need to stop a certain snake from blowing out a precious light, kill the same certain snake with the help of a certain frog, slug and monkey, also save a cherry blossom, raven and leaf from its own darkness and….become the best Hokage ever!"

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed and the three 'genin' didn't miss it, but they said nothing on the matter '_No way, he couldn't mean what I think he means….how does he even know of them? And who could he want to save from Orochimaru he said precious so that means someone close to him….also….cherry blossom_ [glances at Sakura]_…. Raven_ [glances at Sasuke] _….and….leaf….I need to talk to Hokage-sama about this…_' Kakashi tore away from his musing and turned his attention to the three 'genins'.

"Okay that's enough introductions, we start our duties tomorrow, but before that we are going to do something just the four of us…Survival training"

"What? Didn't we do enough training in the Academy already?" Sakura said peeved Kakashi started laughing,

"Why are you laughing all of a sudden" Sakura said starting to get confused, had she missed something?...Kakashi started laughing a bit harder… a tick appeared above her brow...apparently so.

"No…well…it's just that…When you hear this you're probably going to flip. Of the 29 graduates only 9 will be chosen to be genin, the rest will go back to the Academy. This training is super difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66%"

Sakura went frozen in shock and disbelief, Sasuke got out of his brooding state and looked at his sensei for any signs that he was joking….and was sorely disappointed. And Naruto…he was asleep and snoring.

Kakashi sweat-dropped as did the others "NARUTO-BAKA WAKE UP!" Sakura went to hit Naruto when Naruto stopped it nearly crushing it, again, in the process Sakura winced trying to pull her hand away "I told you before Hanuro, don't touch me again, or I will kill you" Naruto said in the same tone he used in the class room,

Kakashi's eye's narrowed so much that they were almost slits. Naruto was releasing a lot of killer intent for a mere fresh genin, Sasuke found himself…jealous? Of the dobes….power?

Sakura was frozen in fear she nodded as best she could, shaking uncontrollably, Naruto let go of her and stood up walking away. Kakashi shook himself from his shock and called after Naruto who kept walking

"Meet us at the training grounds tomorrow and don't eat breakfast, you'll throw-up!" Naruto kept walking but put up a hand saying that he heard what his sensei had said. Kakashi turned to his other students who were still a bit shaken

"That goes for you guys too" He said then left jumping over rooftops and out of sight, Sasuke got up and walked away before Sakura knew it she was alone, she got up and ran away, probably to find Sasuke.

Naruto and Kakashi came into view as soon as Sakura was out of sight. "Mind telling me what's going on?" Kakashi asked Naruto eyed Kakashi

"You're probably one of the few people I can trust so, yes I will tell you, but not here" Kakashi raised a brow,

"Okay, where?" Naruto motioned for the older man to follow him, Naruto led him through the streets of Konoha to his apartment, Kakashi noticed that the apartment wasn't anywhere near where a child should live, but noticed that Naruto didn't mind so he didn't say anything.

Naruto led the way upstairs' and towards a door on the third floor at the end of the hallway, Kakashi took in his surroundings and found that the apartment and found that the room was anything but in good condition. The paint on the walls were peeling and their were cracks in certain places of the ceiling that made you think that it was going to come down on them.

Their were signs that the apartment had been on fire at some point, the ceiling was leaking water, it was small and cramped the 'living room', 'bedroom' and 'kitchen' were all linked in one very cramped 'L' shaped room and their was a small hallway that lead to the bathroom. Kakashi winced at the bad living conditions and wondered what it was like to live in these living conditions for as long as you can remember.

Kakashi shuddered at the thought, however pushed the thoughts away and looked at Naruto who was looking at him smirking.

"Not pretty, is it" he said Kakashi opened his mouth to apologize but Naruto waved him off "Don't worry Kakashi-sensei anyone else who came through that door would say the same" Kakashi nodded and walked in following Naruto. The time-traveler closed the door all the windows did a couple of hand seals but the 'genin' did it too fast for even Kakashi to see.

Naruto turned back to Kakashi and motioned him to sit down which he did, "alright…What do you want to know?"

Kakashi cocked his head to the side, then straitened up a bit and said "Everything…" Naruto simply nodded, and began explaining everything, from being Hokage, to Sakura and Sasuke betraying the village resulting in its downfall.

Kakashi absorbed all his information. "So let me get this straight, you are really the 25 year old Hokage, Naruto, and you know already know about Kyuubi." Naruto nodded, so Kakashi continued

"Orochimaru is going to put a seal on Sasuke, that will make him power hungry and want to seek out Orochimaru to gain that power and betray the village, during the up-coming chunin exams" Naruto nodded again.

"When that happens Hokage-sama is going to die by the hands of his student, Orochimaru, who is now in charge of the village of the sound and allied with the sand that are both going to attack the village. But due to you having 'connections' Suna and Konoha are going to be allied in the future." Naruto nodded.

"You go with Jirayia for a couple of weeks to seek out the new Hokage who turns out to be Tsunade, you manage to convince her to come and be Hokage" Naruto nodded

"Almost immediately after that Sasuke betrays the village and you go on a two and a half year training trip with Jirayia the toad sanin, during that time you find out that the Kyubi's chakra is slowly killing you, and that a group called Akatsuki is after you and all biju containers." Naruto nodded,

"When Orochimaru tried to take over Sasuke's body Sasuke killed him and sought out a group of people to help him kill Itachi. Sasuke succeeded in doing that but still didn't return to Konoha, instead he took over sound and declared war on Konoha, Konoha was winning when Sakura betrayed Konoha and gave out vital information to Sasuke. Which resulted in Konoha's downfall and everyone's except yours death, and due to this Kyuubi sent you back in time to fix things…."

Naruto nodded "Yeah pretty much" They sat their in silence for a moment or two when Kakashi finally opened his mouth to speak "You know that's a whole lot to take in and not even remotely possible to believe" Naruto nodded again not saying a word.

"Then do you expect me to believe this?" Naruto sighed

"I don't expect you to do anything Kakashi-san, but you can't deny the fact that I know things about this village no teenager should, also my knowledge of jutsu's is far beyond what any genin could even hope to surpass. Not only that but I can show you that I have in fact met Jiraiya in the….well that I've met him." Naruto said a little confused, Kakashi cocked his head to the side in confusion

"Oh, and what can you possibly do to make me believe that you are actually 25 years old and Hokage?" Naruto smirked and got out of his chair and stood in front of Kakashi, Naruto stuck his hand out in front of Kakashi and formed a perfect blue spinning orb.

Kakashi's eyes widened he pulled his fore-head protector up and used his sharingan to see if it was actually real or not. Kakashi, after a few minutes(hours) of examining the perfectly shaped rasengan in Naruto's hand slipped his fore-head protector down covering his eye again and nodded, Kakashi sighed and took in all the information again replaying what Naruto had said.

"Does Hokage-sama know about this?" he asked still processing the information, Naruto nodded. Kakashi sighed and rubbed his face maybe in hope that all his new worries about the future will just disappear and he would wake up in his bed late for work….again.

Kakashi pulled his hand away from his face and saw Naruto was still their looking at him, he sighed again. "So given that your current team mates both betrayed you and the village for their own selfish deeds which resulted in the destruction of Konoha. I suppose your teamwork with them will plummet so low that it would go where even demons wouldn't go." Kakashi said, Naruto looked at him amused,

"I guess you would be right in supposing that, but…" Kakashi looked at Naruto with a glint hope in his eyes

"…what would be the point in coming back and trying to fix things?" Naruto said, a small smile graced Kakashi's face, even though covered by the mask on his face Naruto still saw through it and gave him a smile of his own in return

"But that doesn't mean I don't have to make their lives a living hell." Naruto's face split into a massive grin only he and a certain other blonde could manage.

Both males stayed like that talking for hours about Naruto's experiences and past(?)/future(?)until Kakashi sighed a tired smile. Both figures stayed where they were talking until sunrise, finally noticing the time Kakashi looked out the window.

Naruto looked outside with Kakashi "Ne, Kakashi-san, if I'm not careful I might inherit your habit of being late" Kakashi chuckled a bit, Naruto joining in. They both settled down a bit Naruto's face soon turned serious Kakashi gave Naruto his full attention, Naruto turned towards him, his piercing blue eye's staring directly in his eye's and seemed to go further, looking into his very soul. Kakashi summoned all his might NOT to let a shiver escape his spine.

"But you know Kakashi," He said still looking at him; his voice was deep, soothing, yet strict and commanding. It unnerved Kakashi to see his student so serious, not once in his life has he seen anyone so serious

"You have to be able to move on sometime, Obito-san, Rin-san and otou-san are all gone and I'm pretty sure they'll want you to focus on the present and not the past." Kakashi's eye's widened then reverted back to its normal state, he looked down and said nothing he stood still, when he looked back up, his uncovered eye was in an upturned 'U' shape; he nodded to

Naruto who smiled and reverted back to his happy-go-lucky state and "YOSH! Let's go before Sakura beats the shit out of both of us!" Naruto shouted, pumping his hand in the air.

Kakashi sweatdropped at the thought and nodded. Naruto was about to leave when "Naruto" Naruto turned to face his sensei "How strong are you?" Kakashi asked once he had the blond's attention. Naruto's face blew up into a full grown grin

"I surpassed my father" was all he said. Kakashi's eye widened but softened before saying "Guess that's why I gave you the nick-name the most unpredictable ninja ever, ne?" Kakashi said with his own grin, which Naruto happily returned.

"Go easy on me with the exam?" Kakashi asked hopefully but was shot down when Naruto gave a cheeky smile "I'll give you a piece of advice, don't underestimate them" before simply poofing out of existence, Kakashi sighed before following the others lead.

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**End of chapter 1**

**:D hope you liked it, cause if you didn't….(shakes fist angrily)**

**But in all seriousness this is my first time writing so umm…go easy on me, please**

**Review!**

**Disclaimer: once again…Do. Not. Own…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: This is so troublesome, I DO NOT OWN NARUTO...(yawn)**

'_Thinking'_

"Talking"

"**Kyuubi Talking"**

'_**Kyuubi thinking'**_

"_**Inner Sakura Thinking"**_

"**Inner Sakura Talking"**

**Jutsu's **

*actions*

* * *

**Naruto: Hell's Way of Thanks**

**Chapter 2: Team 7**

**Shika XD**

To say Sasuke was pissed was an understatement, not only was their sensei late but so was that Pms-ing bundle of joy, Sakura was staring at him like their was no tomorrow and he was very, very hungry! Sakura however didn't seem to notice, making every second with her precious "Sasuke-kun" count.

Sasuke on the other hand had to use all self control not to go off at the pink haired girl next to him, who was staring openly with little stars in her eyes. Blushing a bit Sakura gathered all her courage and moved closer to Sasuke, noticing the action he glared at her from the corner of his eyes, daring her to move further then she already had.

Sakura gulped understanding, she stopped moving closer and sat up straight, blushing harder as she did every action. "Ne, Sasuke-kun" She said meekly Sasuke turned to look at her, she had to keep a giggle down, she had Sasuke's attention!

She was about to ask him out when two figures came into the clearing, "_**CHA! How'd the bad timing awards go for you two, Baka! WORST TIMING IN THE WORLD!"**__._Sakura forgetting her 'blissful' time with Sasuke she directed her attention and all her anger at the two people coming towards them. "YOU'RE LATE!" she shrieked at the top of her voice, birds in the area fled from their homes in the trees.

Both Naruto and Kakashi smiled a bit and rubbed their neck, "Maa, gomen my alarm clock broke and I had to wait for the shops to open so I could get a new one" They both said in union. Sasuke and Sakura sweatdropped, while Naruto and Kakashi looked at each other before shrugging.

Naruto made his way under a large tree and sat under it, while doing this Kakashi took out two small silver bells, both hanging on two strings. Naruto tuned out as Kakashi explained the exercise to Sasuke and Sakura, he wracked his brain for idea's, plans, memories, information, seals, jutsu's, mappings, but stopped after he got a migraine. Chibi Naruto twirled around in a spot with big swirls in his eyes before collapsing unconscious.

"Ready? Begin"

Two figures blurred out of existence, while one stayed under the shade of a large oak tree napping. Kakashi sweatdropped "Uhh, Naruto the test has begun" he said, but sighed as Naruto kept sleeping mumbling something incoherent.

Sighing again and mumbling something about lazy ninja's he got out a tiny book and sat down next to Naruto, giggling like a madman. _'Their good, but they can be better, Sasuke's up in the trees, while Sakura's under the foliage, yet even though I'm next to him I can barely sense Naruto's presence. Well at least I don't have to deal with him.'_

Kakashi sent a curious glance at the young boy next to him, even though Naruto had proved it, it was still hard to believe that the loudmouthed blonde had actually proved everyone wrong. But at the same time he was comforted by the thought of having someone who through all the hardships the village had given him still believed in the leaf and valued it more then their own life. Kakashi smiled down at the relaxed sunshine blonde figure next to him.

* * *

**2 Hours Later (test went exactly like in the anime, except Naruto wasn't there)**

* * *

An annoying buzzing sounded off into the distance, Naruto sat up groggily, looking to his left he found his favorite jounin sensei sitting next to him, reading his 'Holy Bible', and giggling.

Looking closer at the man he found that Kakashi had bits of dirt, little nicks and scratches all over him, Naruto smirked knowing exactly what had happened. Chuckling a bit, Kakashi turned to face Naruto, Naruto's smirk got wider "Didn't I tell you not to underestimate them?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and mumbled something inaudible, "What was that?" Naruto asked mockingly,

"I said I thought you were exaggerating" the Jounin answered, annoyed. Naruto chuckled once again before getting up and headed for the posts, turning back to his sensei he said "Guess it's the pole for me, ne?"

With a wide grin he sat down in front of the middle pole while Kakashi tied him up. "So your plan is to fail this team and wait for them to graduate later in time?" Kakashi asked, Naruto looked at him like he had grown another head.

"Good God no, another year of the academy! Uh-uh, no thanks!" Naruto shook his head making his hair even more messed up then it already was.

"We're going to pass the same way we did last time" Kakashi looked on confused for a second, and then it clicked Kakashi was smirking as he had collected Sasuke and Sakura. Once all four were gathered at the meeting point Kakashi had gotten the lunches. Setting the lunches down he faced all three of his students, his visible eye was curved in an upturned 'U'.

"Well, theirs no reason for any of you to go back to the academy" He said in his cheerful voice, Sasuke smirked, Sakura cheered, beaming, thinking she had done an excellent job. "Yep, you shouldn't bother; you should all just quit being ninja's"

Sasuke's smirk was replaced by anger, Sakura's beaming smile was replaced by disbelief, Naruto figuring it was time that he started acting a little like the old Naruto looked up at his sensei in disbelief "WHAT? Why? Ok, ok we couldn't get the bells, but why do we have to quit?"

Kakashi faced Naruto also playing his part, but also genuinely interested in what Naruto had in mind. "Because all of you are just punks who don't deserve to be ninja's" Kakashi replied smoothly.

Sasuke snapped shooting up he charged at his sensei, in a blink of an eye Sasuke was on the ground his hand held tightly behind his back and his face pressed against the ground under Kakashi's foot. "NO don't step on Sasuke-kun!" shouted Sakura.

Kakashi's face was shadowed looking up his expression was….deadly. "Are you guys underestimating ninja's? Huh? Why do you think you were divided into teams and are doing this training?"

"Huh? What does that mean?" Sakura asked quietly, Naruto pretended to look confused,

"Basically you guys do not understand the answer to this test." Kakashi sighed.

"Answer?" Naruto asked even more 'confused' then before.

"Yes" Kakashi turned towards him "The answer that helps you pass this test" he replied.

Sakura looked up nervously "So when are you going to tell us?" She asked her confidence shooting down as she said each word.

"Geez…it's teamwork, the three of you working together might have gotten you the bells"

Something seemed to click in Sakura's mind, she laughed bitterly "So the bells were just a decoy" She stated, Kakashi nodded.

"You guys, I'll give you one more chance, but after lunch I'll make it even tougher, those who still wish to challenge can eat lunch. But don't give any to Naruto"

Naruto looked up "Huh?"

"It's punishment for not doing anything productive. If anyone gives him food they will immediately fail. I am the rules here, got it?" He said his face shadowed once more. Kakashi disappeared from his position. Almost immediately afterwards Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs

"Heh! I don't need any food. I'm fine!" When his stomach growled loudly, Sakura sweatdropped, and Sasuke got his lunch and started eating, shortly after Sakura followed his lead. _Curse you Kakashi! Once I get my hands on you I'll… I'll! _Naruto sighed, that bastard knows he can't do anything to him. Kakashi was a vital part of his plans.

A few minutes passed in silence, Naruto's head was down and he looked completely famished, Sasuke catching a glimpse of Naruto's face and sighed. Looking away he offered Naruto his food "Here" Sakura's eyes widened almost chocking on her food.

"Hey Sasuke-kun! Didn't you just hear sensei?" Sasuke sighed again, he rally didn't want to do this.

"Don't worry I don't sense him anywhere near here. After lunch we'll work together and get the bells. Without food he'll just be in the way and will only hurt us."

Outwardly Naruto looked shocked, but chibi Naruto was doing the Cha-cha, "_Go_ _Sasuke, Go Sasuke_" Chibi Naruto chanted, throwing away his maracas he did his little happy dance. Sakura looked down at her own food, then turning away from Naruto she too held out her bento box. Up in the tree's Kakashi looked at the middle figure,

"So that was what you meant, eh Naruto?" Kakashi chuckled a little before he reappeared in front of the three 'genin'.

Lighting struck, black clouds gathered, the wind howled "**YOU GUYS!**" Sasuke got in a defensive stance Sakura cowered away, and Naruto hid his little smile

"3 Pass" The wind stopped, the black clouds disappeared the lightening with it. Sakura and Sasuke looked confused for a second, Kakashi was standing in front of them with a proud smile on his face.

"Pass? But why?" Sakura exclaimed.

"You guys are the first, everyone else would just do whatever I told them, they were all just morons. A ninja must see underneath the underneath, those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash, but do you know what, those who abandon their comrades are worse then trash.

That's the end of training. All of you pass" Kakashi said doing the good guy pose, Sakura and Naruto cheered at becoming ninja's, while Sasuke just settled for a smirk (again).

Getting up Sasuke and Sakura followed Kakashi towards the end of the training ground, Naruto who was still cheering and gloating about how he was going to become the best ninja, stopped and seemed to realize his situation. Giving a nervous chuckle he called out to the retreating figures.

"Hey come on guys, get back here and untie me! Hey! OI! This isn't funny! Sensei! Sakura-chan!...TEME! UNTIE ME; YOU'RE ALL GOING TO REGRET THIS WHEN I BECOME HOKAGE! …..SENSEEEEIIIIII!"

* * *

Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi, were all currently standing in a spacious room in front of them was a large woman, squeezing the life out of a small cat with a little ribbon on its left ear.

Team seven itself looked like they went through hell and back, they all had a multiple number of cuts and bruises, and were also sporting a number of large gashes in their arms and legs. Their cloths were torn and ripped in different areas, their hair was battered and messed up, and it looked like they were barely able to stayed straight.

_Yes, squeeze harder, kill it, destroy it, MURDER IT!_

_**CHA! You got what you deserve! But the worst is yet to come, soon yes, very soon, he he he ha ha ha BWAHAHAHA!**_

_(Chibi eye twitches, mumbling about murdering someTHING)_

_Good God it's still alive! When will the torture end! When GODDAMMIT! _

Team seven were looking down right murderous, the third and Iruka watched on with large sweatdrops on the back of their heads as the four glared daggers at the cat as its owner exited the room.

Clearing his throat, the third shuffled through his files trying to find an appropriate mission for the 'young' shinobi in front of him. "Now team seven your duty is…hmm…babysitting and elder's grandson, shopping in a neighboring village, helping with potato digging and-" the Hokage shivered "-finding Tora the cat"

Naruto who had sat 'patiently' up until now had snapped "NO! No, no, no! I want to do a more incredible mission, find another one old man!"

Kakashi looked thankful '_thank you Naruto!_' Sasuke nodded his head in agreement, while Sakura, who hadn't seemed to notice Sasuke's action, went on about how annoying Naruto was.

"You idiot! You are just a rookie. Everyone starts off with simple missions such as these and works their way up!" Iruka shouted, Sandaime sighed.

"But, we keep getting the crappiest possible duties!" Naruto argued back, _I'm pretty sure this is when we meet Tazuna, all I need to do is act like I did last time and then I'll get to see everyone including Haku and Zabuza again. This time I'll make sure they won't die!" _He thought with determination, Kakashi seemed to notice the look on Naruto's face and stayed quiet interested on where this was going.

"Naruto, it seems I have to explain to you what these duties are all about." The Hokage said sitting up a bit straighter.

"Listen, each day the village receives numerous requests, from babysitting…to assassination. Each request is written on these lists and divided into an A, B, C, D ranking based on difficulty. The village is also divided based on skill, starting with me to the Jounin, Chuunin, and Genin.

The missions are then handed out by us at the top to ninjas based on their abilities. And if the duty is completed successfully we receive payment from the client. You guys just became genin, so D-rank missions are perfect for you."

When the Hokage looked up his triumphant smile disappeared replaced with an irritated look on his face as he found the whole of team seven discussing what ramen Naruto should eat later that night. Kakashi actually looked interested in what Naruto was saying and was giving suggestions. A vain popped on Sandaime's temple "HEY LISTEN!"

"I-I apologize.." Kakashi said looking flustered

"Geez, all you do is give us lectures! But you know what? I'm not the trouble-making brat you still think I am!" Naruto shouted back and turned away. Kakashi gazed at Naruto smiling like their was no tomorrow, Iruka looked on with shock, but smiled afterwards.

Sandaime smiled trusting Naruto's judgement "Ok" He got three shocked faces and one triumphant smirk.

'_Little brat was expecting this'_ was all that ran through Kakashi's and Sandaime's minds,

"Alright bring him in" Two chuunin who were watching on the sidelines opened a side door and revealed…

"My life rests in the hands of these brats, they look like their barely out of their diapers, especially the short one with the stupid looking face" In front of team seven stood a middle aged scruffy old man, a sake bottle in one hand, the smell of liquor was strong on Naruto's nose.

Scrunching his nose in disgust Naruto pinched his nose "You're no sight for sore eye's either old man, and lay off the sake will you, you stink!" Naruto said waving his arm in the air clearing away the scent. Kakashi giggled a bit, but you wouldn't know whether it was from the book or not, Sandaime tilted his hat down covering his face so you wouldn't see his smile.

Sakura on the other hand started lecturing/shrieking at, Naruto about respecting the client, Naruto just looked at her with a bored expression planted on is face. While Tazuna himself beamed before bursting into laughter, everyone turned his way with a questioning look.

"HA I like this kid!" He shouted with laughter, to Sakura's complete and utter disbelief. Naruto beamed shaking hands with Tazuna, He slung an arm around the blondes shoulder

"So gaki, do you know any bars, strip clubs, around this joint?" He asked slyly.

Had he no shame! Went through everyone's mind's, except one that is. Naruto gave a sly smile of his own, "You've come to the right gaki, Tazuna-san, I know all the bar owners in the village"

He said walking Tazuna to the door he continued "And I know a few of the strip club joints and they know me, so stick with me and I can get you in for free and get you a couple of bottles of sake on the house" Naruto grinned cheekily, Tazuna's face seemed to light up.

"Now you're talking! Yosh! Let's go!" He slurred pumping the bottle in the air showering everyone with the foul smelling liquid. Naruto didn't mind so much, he was used to the stuff, moving for the door, it was Iruka who stopped them. And it wasn't a happy Iruka. Naruto gulped a bit,

"Naruto" He said murderously, his eye twitched a little

"Since when do you drink?" Naruto looked up at him with a blank expression.

"What are you talking about Iruka-sensei? I've been drinking since was four."

In the background you could here Sakura gasp, Sandaime and Kakashi looked up in shock, they hadn't heard about this, Sasuke just looked curious. Tazuna looked around in surprise

"You drink? Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" Naruto snorted.

"I say, old enough to kill, old enough to drink, old enough to fuck" Tazuna nodded, seemed reasonable, to him anyway, Iruka on the other hand, didn't agree so whole-heartedly. Stalking right up to Naruto he pushed him up onto the wall and looked him dead straight in his crystal blue eye's.

"Naruto" He said as calmly as he could, though his voice was shaking a little,

"You are going to stop dinking and you are going to stop NOW! Do we understand each other?" He said forcefully, meaning 'no' was not an option. Naruto nodded his head vigorously, Iruka calmed down and smiled

"Well, now that that's settled, Team sevens mission will start in two hours."

Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, Kakashi looked amused at the sight played before him and Sasuke and Sakura were still trying to process everything that was happening. Tazuna on the other hand looked disappointed, this meant he wouldn't be able to go to the strip club.

"Oi, Kakashi-sensei, you wanna come with us" Naruto asked once he regained his breath, Tazuna looked up hopefully, while Iruka whirled around staring at Naruto, Naruto never broke his word. Kakashi looked surprised for a second, but shrugged and nodded.

"Alright, team seven meet at Konoha gate entrance" Iruka looked on the scene with shock.

"Naruto! Didn't you just say you weren't going to drink again?" Naruto opened the door and let Kakashi and Tazuna out then turned to face Iruka with an innocent look on his face.

"Sure I did, but that doesn't mean I got to quit smoking" Naruto stuck his tongue out and bolted out the door.

Iruka's expression was one of pure rage, "NARUTO!" Sasuke smirked, while Sakura looked on with disgust written all over her expression. Sandaime didn't know whether to smile or not, so he settled with a sigh.

* * *

**4 Hours later**

* * *

The sun was shining down brightly over the hidden village of the leaves the streets were busy and full of life, as cheerful families and friend's walked down the dusty roads. Occasionally pausing to chat with friendly commoners as well as sales keepers. The birds were singing their sweet melody, while the squirrels danced to their music-

"**WHERE ARE THEY!**"

The birds flew out of their nests heading for safe ground, the squirrels ran back deep into the welcoming shadows of the forest and hid in their burrows. The village people stopped their morning rituals and whirled around alarmed, searching for the source of the horrible shrieking sound.

Mean while at the entrance of Konoha's gates, stood two short figure's stood waiting for their sensei and everybody's favorite blonde and their client. The pink haired girl fumed almost pulling her own hair out in frustration, the raven haired boy next to her though watched the girl for his own amusement, not really caring that the three were 2 hours late, after all he did have an amusing show of his own right now. These were what you called good times.

Sakura almost did rip her hair out when the sound of laughter reached their ears, much to Sasuke's disappointment. Kakashi, Tazuna and Naruto came into view, all laughing, smoking (except Kakashi), and making jokes. Sakura's rage seemed to boil up into a great lump waiting to explode at any second.

"**YOU'RE LATE!"**

Inner Sakura had seemed to have taken over, all over Konoha screams of agony, shouts of pain, explosions that shook the great forests, yells of the devil itself could be heard all over Konoha.

Back at the gate Kakashi, Naruto and Tazuna lay in a bloody heap on the ground and a certain pink haired kunoichi walking away from them. Sasuke hovered over the three with an amused smirk planted on his face, Naruto swore he would have burst out laughing if his 'Uchiha face' would allow it.

"Remind me never to go anywhere with you again Kakashi-sensei"

Naruto's voice cracked as he spoke, all three fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

**End chap.2**

**Ahh, I know I stuffed his one up, I'll try to do better next time 'kay promise.**

**Oh yeah sorry I was so late, but school takes over your life, you know. And sorry it's so short **

**Review!**

**Disclaimer: ****DO. NOT. OWN**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, or any of its characters…**

**Hey everyone hope your enjoying the story so far sorry for the long wait, anyway moving on, it's poll time!(No not that poll..(sweatdrop)), moving on! I don't know if Haku should be a boy or a girl, Also! Should Zabuza and Haku return to Konoha or not? I'll post it up on ma profile for you! :D**

**Review people!**

**Tell me good or bad, I don't mind bad comments, in fact I like them, I can focus on my bad points that way, so review please and I'll right my wrongs! (Sweatdrops, that was so lame) **

'_Thinking'_

"Talking"

"**Kyuubi Talking"**

'_**Kyuubi thinking'**_

"_**Inner Sakura Thinking"**_

"**Inner Sakura Talking"**

**Jutsu's **

*actions*

* * *

**Naruto: Hell's Way of Thanks**

**Chapter 3: Three Shrimps and a Scarecrow**

**Shika XD**

It was hot, the deserted dusty pathway, was dry, the grass and foliage of the surrounding forest was parched and some dying. The sun glared down upon the earth's floor, the heat intensifying, not a fluff of white could be seen in the crystal sky. Five figures currently occupied the dry road, trudging along in the summer's heat.

All, well most, were quiet, Kakashi was reading his porn book, seemingly disregarding is surroundings, but was really taking in everything, sight, sound and smell every time he giggled, which was every three minutes.

Naruto was walking quietly beside Kakashi, with a bored expression planted on his face. He would occasionally look around and take in his surroundings, or just space out and daydream about ramen. Naruto looked up at the white hot sun, shadowing his eyes with one hand, were the sun lay was now a giant bowl of ramen.

Naruto stopped walking and stared wide-eyed and mouth watering, Kakashi noticing this, rapped Naruto on the head effectively snapping him out of his trance. Naruto glared at Kakashi before looking back up at the sun, only to find that his giant bowl of ramen was gone, his face fell,

'_Why ramen? Why did you desert me? WHY!'_ he thought long wavy streams of tears flowed down his face, as he kneeled on the ground shaking his fist angrily at the sun. Kakashi who was the only one who noticed this sweatdropped, did he give him brain damage?

Sasuke and Sakura who were up ahead were walking side by side with Tazuna were trying to strike conversation…well Sakura was, and failing miserably at that, Sasuke and Tazuna listened to the girl go on and on.

Tazuna wanted to stuff his head into the ground and block out the sound of her high pitched voice. Sasuke chibi was had gotten two oversized ear plugs and shoved them in his ear visibly enjoying the peaceful sound of nothingness, leaving the 'real' Sasuke to suffer the horror of listening to the banshee.

The five had been walking for two days straight, they still needed at least four more days to reach the Land of Waves at the pace they were going. Naruto hated this pace, it was snail pace (A/N: the pace they are going is normal walking), he hated snail pace, it was worse then turtle pace.

"**Oi, kit"** Naruto almost jumped a mile, but stopped himself halfway, luckily no one saw his actions. Damn, he completely forgot about Kyuubi

'_Finally decided to wake up huh baka fox?'_ Naruto said jokingly, he could here Kyuubi mumbling something about the new generation not respecting their elder superiors.

" **Shouldn't you be putting your plan into action by now? The Chunin exams are coming up in almost three months, the way things are looking now, it is going to go exactly like last time." **Kyuubi paused letting this new information sink in

'_Then what do you propose I do and since when did I have a plan?'_ Kyuubi almost snorted, what did he ever do to get stuck in such a stupid baka? Sure he killed a few people…okay so he killed a lot but still! He didn't deserve this, right? Kyuubi sighed

"**How about you train them kit. You have the skills, you have the time….we need to work on your patience though"** Kyuubi sweatdropped at the sight of chibi Naruto shouting insults at him, saying he did not have short tolerance.

Finishing his little tantrum, Naruto contemplated on the thought of teaching them both, weighing out the pros and cons of the situation. On the plus side he would be able to get them both stronger in a shorter amount of time, with any luck Sakura would be mid-chunin by the end of these three months if she put her back into it, and Sasuke could very well make low-jounin level.

Hopefully this would make him reconsider his thoughts of taking up Orochimaru's offer, but that would still leave the problem of his brother. Naruto ripped his gaze of Sasuke and found its way over to the pink haired genin, his eyes narrowed, he needed to knock any if not all thoughts of Sasuke out of her head, his eyes darted over to the brooding Uchiha, he also needed to show him the path away from Orochimaru. In other words he needed to get Sasuke power and knock some sense into that thick skull of his.

While thinking on how to do this, Kakashi was watching Naruto with interest from in front, catching the glances he threw at his team mates, he saw his pupil's eyes calculate their every movement, their every word and expression. He saw his eyes narrow and then soften, only to harden and have his face turn into a twisted smile, Naruto laughed evilly to himself, making Kakashi wonder if Naruto really was in his right state of mind.

He saw chibi Naruto cackling madly as dark blackish purple clouds loomed over him lighting and thunder clashing creating thunderous sounds. Kakashi blinked and the vision was gone, he felt his forehead was he sick?

He looked back at Naruto who had his bored expression on again, turning back he wondered if the heat was getting to him. He heard a mad cackle come from behind him, whipping around only to meet the sight of a confused looking Naruto, staring at his tardy sensei for acting weirdly. Kakashi turned back, maybe he should go see a doctor after the mission.

Naruto smirked, that'll teach Kakashi to spy on him while he was spying on others, honestly didn't the man know what the word privacy meant? Kyuubi snorted

"**Hypocrite" **he mumbled,

'_Hey! I'm doing this for a good cause, he's just doing it because he's curious'_ Kyuubi snorted again.

"**How long did it take for you to think of that comeback?"** Chibi Naruto smiled sheepishly at the fox, while scratching the back of his head.

'_About twenty minutes,'_ Kyuubi smacked his forehead with his paw, so he killed people for a living did he really deserve this punishment, of every living, breathing person in the world, why did it have to be Naruto he was stuck in.

Naruto stared at the backs of his team mates, what could he do to stop fate from catching up to him again, what could he do to stop the inevitable, a little eerie smile came across his features, as a light bulb lit up above his head. Maybe it was time to pull a leaf out of Orochimau's book and lure Sasuke into the …'promise of redemption' for a lack of better words.

Kakashi who had decided on that moment to turn around saw Naruto wearing the creepiest smile he had seen in all his years as a shinobi, he whipped back to the front so fast it was a miracle he did not get whiplash. Turning ever so slightly back to glance at Naruto he found his pupil….not behind him? Kakashi stopped short turning his whole body around in search for Naruto,

"What are you doing" the voice was right next to his ear, making Kakashi jump into full battle mode and almost shove a kunai through Naruto's throat. Everyone froze, then stared and stared and stared.

Finally Naruto was the first to move, taking the kunai from his sensei he looked Kakashi straight in the eye and said in a way that made it seem as though he was the parent and Kakashi was a child needing direction.

"Kaka-chan sharp objects are bad, you shouldn't play with them you can hurt yourself or others, don't do it again, okay? Good boy" he pat Kakashi on his head like he was a four year old, Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna sweatdropped, while Kakashi settled for a glare.

"Naruto"

"Yes Kaka-chan?"

"I hate you"

"Well, at least you're being honest and telling the truth, we wouldn't want our little sensei to be a liar now would we?"

Kakashi groaned, Tazuna snickered, Sasuke smirked and Sakura fawned over Sasuke ignoring everyone else.

Three hours later night had fallen and the Earth was covered in a blanket of darkness, Kakashi signalled them to stop, Tazuna, Sakura and Sasuke moved to make camp, as Naruto went over to a tall tree. Jumping up he grabbed a branch and swung himself onto it getting comfortable he looked up at the sea of crystals in the nights sky.

"Kakashi-sensei I'm taking first watch" He called down from the tree's, Kakashi looked up from where he was setting up his tent and nodded after regarding Naruto warily. Hours later after everyone had said their goodnights all was quiet, except for the summer crickets chirping and the large bats flying in the area quietly hunting for their food.

Up in the tree Naruto laid with his hands folded behind his head, his left leg swinging freely down from the tree, while his right leg was bent and foot flat resting on the branch. Sapphire eyes studied his surroundings, even though he knew nothing would disturb them, the clam nights breeze blew past him ruffling his blonde locks. Naruto sighed getting out of his comfortable position, gathering charka to his feet on pure instinct he walked down the tree moving to wake Kakashi to take next watch.

"How did you do that?" asked a calm smooth voice coming from his right, Naruto turned to the source to find Sasuke, standing calmly fully dressed (A/N: sorry but I just can't imagine Sasuke in pj's, it even sounds wrong!).

Naruto kept staring for a moment before getting over his shock, how in Gods name did he get behind him without him noticing? He turned around now fully facing Sasuke.

"Gather a certain amount of charka to your feet, if you gather too much you'll get repelled and too little will not allow you to 'grab' hold of the trunk. You need the correct amount to be able to do it; it is part of a charka control exercise." Naruto said demonstrating all of what he had just said.

Sasuke nodded accepting the answer he had just gotten and moved to walk away when Naruto stopped him "Try it" was the only thing he said before taking a kunai out of his pouch and throwing it to Sasuke who caught it with ease.

"Mark the tree every time you're just about to fall, try getting up to the top of the tree more then three times to master it" with that he walked into his tent and mumbling a small goodnight, Sasuke looked at the tree in front of him, studying it for a moment before standing straight.

Focusing some charka to his feet, before running towards the tree and climbing up, he got up 10 meters before being blown back and falling to the floor.

Inside his tent Naruto smiled, yeah this time would definitely be different, he spent the rest of the night watching Sasuke as he worked, reaching higher and higher before finally reaching the top of the tree after three hours.

Panting slightly Sasuke smirked triumphantly before setting back to work and climbing the tree once more. Another hour passed before the young male stopped what he was doing panting harshly on the floor trying to regain his breath. After calming himself Sasuke picked himself off the floor and moved back to his tent going inside Naruto saw his shadow collapse onto the sleeping bag.

Naruto chuckled before exiting the tent and moved towards Kakashi's tent and kicked it, Kakashi sat up and shot a kunai at Naruto, at lightening bolt speed. Dodging the kunai he peeked through the hole the kunai made and asked

"Is this how you treat all your guests Kakashi? Or are you just not a morning person?" Kakashi fumed

"Naruto" he hissed dangerously.

Naruto grinned "Your turn to watch" He said cheerfully with a massive grin on his face, before walking away, inside the tent Kakashi promising bloody murder to the boy before gathering his things and walked outside to stand watch for the rest of the night.

* * *

Sunlight peeked through the tent creeping slowly towards the sun kissed figure curled in a blanket, crawling up the blanket and hitting his eyes. Naruto's eyes fluttered open, before groaning he rolled over and got up, rubbing his eyes he exited the tent to find Kakashi already up, either that or he spent the other half of the night keeping watch

"Ohaiyo gosaimasu" he said yawning, just then Sasuke came out imitating Naruto's actions and words, both gathered their things and went down to the nearby river. Leaving Kakashi behind blinking at something that should not have happened

'…_Uchiha's and Uzamaki's do NOT imitate one another, they do not think the same, they did not do the exact same thing just now and they did not just say good morning to one another without screaming bloody murder to the world'_

Kakashi turned to his pupils who were walking calmly down the dusty track that lead to the river both making small talk

'…_Kakashi you so need to see a doctor' _he looked back at the two figures walking calmly and joking as if it were nothing, he turned back to the camp site'_…and an optometrist'_.

"Is he still looking?" Naruto snickered his voice barely above a whisper, Sasuke nodded, trying to keep the smile from breaking onto his face, Naruto laughed

"This has got to be the best prank I've ever done on Kakashi" Naruto snickered trying to keep his laughing under control

"He's going to think he's gone mad by the end of the day" He was holding his stomach in laughter now, Sasuke couldn't contain his and started chuckling with Naruto, both continued their way to the river laughing at the possibilities of outcomes their joke could make.

Once both had calmed down fully they were at the riverbank and had already freshened up, Naruto peeked at Sasuke out of the corner of his eyes.

"**Kit, this would be your chance to offer him training"** Naruto sunk back into his thoughts.

'_I could do that, hey Kyuu, what do you think of instead of me personally training him and revealing almost everything about me, how about I find him someone that would almost definitely raise him to mid-Jounin level by the end of lets say three and a half months. Right now he's most definitely mid- to high-chunin level.'_ Kyuubi nodded in understanding.

"**Only their's one problem with this kit, how are we supposed to find someone willing to do this, you're not Hokage anymore, or yet technically speaking, you barely know anyone that would pull favours like this for you."**

Naruto smirked, _'Did you know Kyuu, that having a Hokage that looks onto you as a grandson figure comes in handy, I mean anything you want he could give you.'_ He replied innocently.

Kyuubi laughed a bit **"I've got to hand it to you kit, you sure know how to pick your connections"**.

Naruto grinned, _'but first, I need to teach them the basics, or at least get Kakashi to get off that lazy ass of his'_ Kyuubi snickered in the background before retreating into the darkness that was Naruto's mind.

Naruto looked over to Sasuke who was starting to gather up his possessions,

" Sasuke-teme, did you finish the exercise?" Naruto asked knowing fully that he had, Sasuke turned to face him, a smirk planted onto his features

"It could hardly be called an exercise, it was a synch, dobe" he replied in a I'm-a-Uchiha-and-so-much-better-then-you-I-can-do-anything-voice, Naruto muttered something about Uchiha's being too stuck up for their own good, before turning and facing him, with a large grin planted on his face, except this grin seemed different, it was hiding something behind it.

Sasuke regarded his warily "Why?" he asked contemplating on whether he should leave or stay and see what the Dobe wanted.

"Because if it was such an easy exercise, you should be able to do the next exercise in less then two days right?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes; the unasked question lingering in the air, Naruto turned his back to Sasuke now facing the glistening stream of liquid in front of him, again gathering charka to the soles of his feet he stepped on top of the liquidated surface, sending a pool of ripples through his surroundings.

Turning back he almost laughed at the Uchiha's expression but held it back, clearing his throat Sasuke met Naruto's gaze

"Can you do it?" he asked a challenge hidden inside the words that had left his mouth. Sasuke's eye narrowed,

"**Kit, he's never going to get the hang of water walking in under two days, not without the proper advice. If you want to allow things to speed up give him the proper direction and be sure not to give away exactly what you have to do like the last time, otherwise I assure you he will never learn."** Naruto mentally nodded,

"I'll give you a head start, even though it is similar to it, the water walking exercise is a lot harder then the tree walking. To be able to master it you will have to find out the answer yourself, I can't give it to you this time. Just remember to use the correct amount of charka and remember that you are walking on liquid not a solid." Sasuke was giving Naruto his utmost attention yet trying not to show it.

"But, you can't practice now" Naruto said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and grinning his 'Uzamaki-grin', Sasuke's eye twitched, just remembering that they were on a mission and not back in Konoha, but nodded all the same storing the information he had just heard in the back of his mind.

Naruto smirked as he watched his comrade walk away _'one down, one to go'_ gathering his possessions he ran up behind Sasuke after calling his name, the male turned to face the blond giving him a questioning look, Naruto stopped in front of him with a wide grin on his face.

"Want to scare the shit out of Kakashi-sensei?" he asked all to innocently, Sasuke smirked somewhat evilly, four simple words left Sasuke's mouth, words that would bring pure chaos upon their poor unsuspecting teacher.

"What's the plan dobe?"

Back at camp Kakashi sneezed a total of seven times, Tazuna and Sakura looked over at the Cyclops

"Ne, Kaka-sensei maybe you should go get that checked after we complete the mission" Sakura said sounding a bit concerned for the well-fair of her teacher, or Kakashi supposed.

Tazuna on the other hand went on about paying good money for good Shinobi, but instead gets three shrimps and a sick scarecrow. Both Sakura and Kakashi sweatdropped at the comments the bridge builder threw at them.

* * *

**I know it's a kind of pointless chapter and it's not that good (I kinda slacked off on this one) but I promise that I'll do better next time.**

**Well anyway review if you want to, if you don't want to then…..don't, not like I can do anything about it, for all I know you could be on the other side of the world.**

**Anyway more coming soon find out Sasuke and Naruto's prank!**

**Ja **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I won't like to either….too much work (sigh) life is just too complicated these days.**

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**Okay! Sorry for the last chapter I kind of wagged on it (sweat-dropman I really wish they had a button for this) anyway I tried I bit harder this time and I'm going to make the story move along a bit faster.**

**Moving on! Just like to say thanks to all the reviews I got they were awesome, (MUCH THANKS FOR THE PERSON WHO GAVE ME COOKIES! I LOVED THEM XD) thanks for all the support =D **

'_Thinking'_

"Talking"

"**Kyuubi Talking"**

'_**Kyuubi thinking'**_

"_**Inner Sakura Thinking"**_

"**Inner Sakura Talking"**

**Jutsu's **

*actions*

**I think that's all….yep, on with the story!**

* * *

**Naruto: Hell's Way of Thanks**

**Chapter 4: Oh My, ****Shōnen-ai**?

**Shika XD**

It was dark, the night was cold compared the heat that rose in the day, as a soft breeze blew past a deserted street surrounded by trees as two shadowed figures blurred past, faster then the normal eye could follow.

A pink haired female teen whipped around, kunai ready in hand, a silver haired man's eye narrowed, he studied his surroundings not sure what to make of it, a bead of sweat trickled down his face, the girls eyes were wide as she stood frozen in fear, sweat also running down her small face.

A small 'tink' could be heard from behind Kakashi, his visible eye widened, turning back to his female student he mentally cursed himself at the sight he met, Sakura's emerald eyes were open wide in fear and shock as a very sharp kunai came to contact with her throat, resting only to be centimeters from slitting it.

The holder of the kunai smirked his ebony black eyes danced in amusement, onyx hair fluttered in the wind, along with his blue high collard baggy shirt. Uchiha Sasuke gave a low chuckle full of malice, Kakashi gritted his teeth, it was a near hopeless situation.

Inside, Sakura's mind was going haywire, what could she do, she couldn't hurt Sasuke, but she cold never in a million years hope to achieve what the male behind her was asking. She gritted her teeth and closing her bright green eyes, she clutched her kunai tighter, raising it, faster then lightening she struck, blood splattered onto the grass below and on the black figure, Kakashi and Sasuke looked on in shock. The kunai that was in Sasuke's now bloodied hand lay on the ground, Kakashi wasted no more time and struck immediately.

Sasuke saw the attack too late, Kakashi smiled from under the mask as he went in for the killing blow, Sasuke bent his head forward closing his eyes, a smirk planted onto his face.

Kakashi's expression turned into one of pure horror, as he found himself pinned onto the ground with shuriken, a heavy weight was put upon him as a razor sharp kunai found its way to his now exposed neck.

He soon found himself staring at Sakura who was in the same situation, both student and teacher cursed themselves mentally as Naruto, who sat on top on Kakashi and Sasuke, who sat on top of Sakura, both smirked, Naruto pressed the kunai tighter to Kakashi's throat as Sasuke did the same.

"This is why you need to do this Kakashi" Naruto hissed dangerously, Sakura struggled from under Sasuke

"Sasuke-kun, why are you doing this?" She shouted desperate for an answer, almost in tears at the certain situation

"Why are you going along with this? Why are you listening to that blond haired idiot?" Naruto shot a cold glare her way, she visibly flinched back at the cold crystal eyes, Sasuke's gaze on her back intensified at the words spoken, he dug the kunai deeper against her throat almost drawing blood

"That 'blond haired idiot' just happened to come up with a plan, that succeeded, to take down a Jōninand genin in under ten minutes, that's more then I could say for you." Sakura bit her bottom lip trying to keep from the tears escaping her eyes.

"So Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-san, I guess this means you'll have to do it" Naruto smirked evilly, Kakashi gritted his teeth, this wasn't good, his mind went into a rush trying to get out of the current situation

"Don't bother Kakashi-sensei there is no way out, hand it over".

"Never" Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Hand it over Kakashi-sensei and no one need be hurt, don't be so foolish as to tempt me" he said as he pressed the kunai further into the mans skin, effectively breaking it and drawing blood, Kakashi gritted his teeth at the pain that came with the blood.

Naruto smiled maniacally "Now are you going to hand it over or not?" He said forcefully, Kakashi gritted his teeth only this time not from the pain, Sakura shook in fear and frustration, how did it turn out this way! Why did it turn out this way! Everything was going fine, why did it have to be like this!

"It doesn't have to end like this Kakashi-sensei, all you have to do is give us what we want" Sasuke said quietly. A heavy silence found its way upon them, sweat ran down each of their faces, Kakashi cursed over and again, Sakura mumbled something about it being impossible after all, all hope was now lost for them.

Kakashi was about to hand 'it' over to Naruto and Sasuke when "Y-Y-You know, if you asked, I could have just paid for dinner myself"

A sweatdropping Tazuna said, slightly disturbed at the sight of the scene, the four Shinobi took a look at their surroundings, only now noticing the large crowed that had gathered around them.

All separated as far away from each other as fast as possible, Tazuna went over to a scared stiff waiter and handed him the correct amount of money needed, all the while mumbling something about crazy ninja's and troublesome blonde haired kids that had more mood swings then a PMSing woman.

As they exited the area and made their way across the small town they had made a side trip to, Kakashi made a mental note never to agitate his male students and to always pay for dinner, it would save him his pride and his life. Sakura was once again trying to flirt with Sasuke, who was completely ignoring her, and talk to Tazuna who in turn tried to walk faster to get away from the girl.

Behind them all was Naruto, walking once again at snail pace, Sasuke who was still trying to block out Sakura's annoying voice turned back to look at Naruto, suddenly remembering his challenge. Looking back up ahead he walked faster to catch up with Kakashi

"Kakashi-sensei, how long are we staying here?" a silence washed over the both of them, Sasuke did not know what to make of the silence but held his own and waited for his sensei to respond. Kakashi looked down from his book, only seemingly noticing now that his student was next to him at all.

"Hmm, you say something?" Sasuke had to hold himself from falling flat of his face.

"I asked how long we would be staying here" He said annoyed, trying to keep his right eye from twitching and failing miserably,

"Hmm, for the rest of the night" Kakashi replied a bit curious as to why Sasuke would ask this but let it slide and kept walking taking in his surroundings.

Sasuke took in the information and kept a scowl from reaching the surfacing and gracing his features, how was he supposed to do the exercise and prove the Dobe wrong now?

From the back Naruto had heard the whole conversation and knew what Sasuke was thinking, picking up his pace he walked over to Tazuna cutting Sakura off mid-sentence.

"Ne, Tazuna-san, do you have a lake near your house?" He asked loud enough so that Sasuke could hear, Naruto saw Sasuke's ears prick up at his voice trying to ever so casually listen in to the conversation, Tazuna turned to the child and nodded

"Yes, why?" He asked letting his curiosity get the better of him.

Naruto simply grinned and said "Because, I want to get out of this heat, it's killing me" Tazuna snorted mumbling something about worthless ninja's that couldn't even take the heat.

Meanwhile Naruto was getting severely scolded by Sakura for cutting her off, Naruto blocked her out and went back to playing chess with Kyuubi. The score was 10-1, to Kyuubi, the great fox would torment and tease the boy every time he won a game, but was impressed that the blond had actually won a game against him.

Sasuke looked back at Naruto and stared, was it coincidence? No, nothing was ever a coincidence with Naruto, he had heard the 'conversation' he had with Kakashi, but how? Naruto had been well out of hearing range, when he had spoken with their sensei.

Sasuke willed the thoughts away; he would wait, after all Naruto had proven himself that he wasn't as weak as everyone thought.

'_Let's see what you can do Uzamaki Naruto'_ was his only thoughts as he continued to trudge along the dusty road towards a tall building. Leaving the unsuspecting blond to argue with Kyuubi who had just won another game, that made the score 11-1, Kyuubi.

Once the group acquired their rooms, Sakura got her own room, she did not want to be in the same room as an "Perverted old man, a drunken smelly old man, and a hyperactive klutz" although she did invite Sasuke to share a room with her, in turn he called her pathetic and pushed past her.

Sasuke and Naruto were sharing another room, while Kakashi shared with Tazuna. When Sakura voice her opinion about not wanting to share a room with them Kakashi had anime tears running down from his visible eye, mumbling something about Sakura being mean.

While Tazuna replied with his own insult which Naruto did not hear, but it earned Tazuna a rather hard punch to the head, creating a large lump. Naruto sweatdropped at the sight of the group and their antics, why was he cursed?

"**Trust me kid your far from cursed…although I do wonder at times with your lack of brain power"** Chibi Naruto pointed and yelled at Kyuubi jumping up and down, shouting that he was not dumb and did not lack brain power.

A large sweatdrop appeared on the back of Kyuubi's head, yep Naruto was definitely doomed to stupidity for all eternity.

'_I HEARD THAT BAKA FOX!'_ Chibi Naruto shouted still pointing at him. Kyuubi got another smaller sweatdrop on top of the larger one.

"-ruto, Naruto, NARUTO! **BAKA NARUTO LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!**" Sakura went to hit Naruto but Naruto dodged the punch and looked at Sakura who was now on the ground having tripped over her own feet.

The blonde looked down at the pink haired female, a couple of seconds passed and three dots appeared above Naruto and Sakura's heads.

"Sakura, why are you on the floor?" Sakura had a large anime vain pop out on her head, and her clenched fist, which she held in front of her face as she rose from the ground.

"**Naruto**" her voice was filled with malice and anger. Although Naruto took no notice of it and continued to look on at her with an confused expression on his face

"If you were that tired you should have said so, we could have gotten here earlier" He said absentmindedly as he brushed past her into the boys' room. Leaving Sakura engulfed with flames and shaking in rage.

Kakashi and Tazuna who saw the sight gave a little chuckle, Sakura whipped around at the sound and gave them a death glare (it was pretty intimidating). Both of there faces paled to a pasty white, they dashed to their room and locked the door, before adding another ten locks and locking them, as well as getting planks from god knows where and nailing them to the door twenty times each, before going to hide under their blankets.

Sakura who had heard this from the other side screamed in rage before turning around and stomping off into her own room.

"Is she gone?" asked Tazuna from underneath the blanket,

"Yeah" Kakashi replied, before both snorted in laughter.

* * *

Meanwhile inside their room Naruto was off to have a shower, taking the cloak that the Saindame had given him and laying it out on a chair, completely disregarding the fact that Sasuke was watching his every movement. However, his eyes seemed to linger on the cloak that Naruto had taken off, before the onyx eyes once again found themselves watching the blonde-haired person as he disappeared into the bathroom.

Sasuke heard the click of the bathroom door and the sound of water running, looking over at the coat again he stared at it for a few seconds before jumping up and running towards it.

Being careful not to move it out of place he searched through the pockets, searching for anything that could give him a better understanding of the ninja on the other side of the door. Instead all he found was a lot of scrolls, explosive tags, spare kunai and shuriken, as well as multiple numbers other sharp objects that he didn't even know the name to.

'_How the hell does he hide this stuff!'_ was all that ran through his head as he studied the weapons, opening one of the scrolls he was about to read through it when the running water suddenly stopped. Closing the scroll once more he gathered everything and put them in the correct places as best he could, and lay the cloak down in the exact position Naruto had laid it down.

A click from the door told Sasuke that Naruto was exiting moving faster then light itself he dove under the bed sheets, laying perfectly still as Naruto came out of the bathroom a lot of rustling and shuffling could be heard before a 'click' sounded throughout the room, when Naruto had turned off the light.

Sasuke breathed knowing he hadn't gotten caught, on the other side of the room lying on his bed, if one looked close enough they would be able to see Naruto smirking in the dark. Yeah he had Sasuke hooked, now all he had to do was find the right trainer, but before that…

"Oi teme, you still awake?"

"Hn, what is it dobe?"

"Want to see Kakashi-sensei scared shitless?"

Shuffling could be heard from Sasuke's bed before a soft padding, a click of the light switch, from his bed Naruto grinned evilly while Sasuke who was still standing next to the switch grinned back.

* * *

Kakashi awoke from his slumber, frowning a little as to why that was he lay immobile on his bed, eyes still closed listening to his surroundings. Shuffling could be heard from his surroundings, Kakashi was on full alert, inside his room? No…it was coming from outside, an enemy? He heard panting…wait, what?

"Ah! *huff huff* N-not so hard *pant*" some shuffling could be heard.

Kakashi blushed but gave a perverted giggle,

"It's kind of hard *pant* to do this while you're squirming *pant*"

Kakashi giggled again so both, by the sound of it, were males and pretty young too, Kakashi gave a quiet perverted giggle again his blush intensifying, if his memory served him right the only males sharing one room on this floor was himself and Tazuna and….Kakashi's eyes snapped open as he shot up from his pillow….Sasuke and Naruto.

"Ah! *pant, pant*Watch ah! W-where you prod th-that thing t-teme"

Kakashi paled.

"I-I *pant* would i-if you would s-stop squirming"

"*huff huff* N-not my fault ah! y-you suck at this, ah!"

Shuffling could be heard.

"T-then do it *pant* yourself, if you can *pant*"

Kakashi paled further.

"Ah! *pant pant* mmff *huff huff*"

Kakashi blushed so hard it would have put Hinata to shame.

"Mmm *huff huff* S-sasuke *pant pant* help m-me *gasp*"

That was it for Kakashi, after having a massive nosebleed he flashed out of his bed and out the door in front of Sasuke's and Naruto's, not surprised to see a red-in-the-face Sakura already their. Both barged into the room

"**WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"** A dirty Sasuke and Naruto, both covered in mud, cuts and droplets of blood looked up from what they were doing, Naruto's arm was in Sasuke's hand, Sasuke had a bloody cotton ball in his other hand dabbing the blood off of Naruto's arm

"Ah! I told you *huff huff* watch where you prod that thing!" Sasuke glared at the blond

"Would you hold still *pant*". Sakura and Kakashi looked on, before both fainted from shock and relief (A/N: You dirty minded people! XP sorry yaoi fans maybe next time).

Both Sasuke and Naruto waited a couple of seconds before bursting out in laughter "T-that w-was hilarious *gasp* ha, ha" Naruto chocked out between gasps of laughter and a bit of pain, his arm still hurt from training.

Sasuke could only nod his head before calming down and turning back towards Naruto saying "So, when's the next prank?" a sly smirk made its way across his features, Naruto turned to look at the raven haired boy, and gave an equally sly smirk

"Very, very soon".

The four ninja's and their charge were once again walking down a dusty road towards their destination, all was quiet, Kakashi wasn't even reading his book anymore due to it bringing up, ah, certain memories.

Sakura was sending questioning glances towards the two boys while Tazuna was oblivious to everything. Inside his mind Naruto had once again challenged Kyuubi to another game of chess, and was losing though not as bad this time the score was currently 3-12.

Kyuubi was silently applauding the boys increase in intellect, all the while still trying to crush him mercilessly at the game. Sasuke chibi was currently doing the cha-cha, maracas and all celebrating the fact that Sakura was not leeching off of him today, another plus that came with the prank him and Naruto had played on them.

Meanwhile back with Naruto, he suddenly snapped out of his match with Kyuubi as soon as he saw the puddle, looking back at Kakashi, their eyes met each knowing what the other was thinking.

Looking back ahead Naruto flicked Sasuke's shoulder, Sakura silently fumed, Sasuke on the other hand seemed to have noticed the puddle as well and gave Naruto a sign that he understood. Slowing down he stepped in time to Sakura, Sakura gave him a questioning look having noticed the silent message passed between her two teammates, Sasuke as discretely as he could looked over at the puddle Sakura silently following his gaze, she stopped herself from widening her eye's and looked back to the road in front of them, all four Shinobi ready for the on coming attack.

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**Cliffy! XD**

**Sorry people but I'm really not in the mood to write a battle scene, I'll most likely just skip it next chapter but maybe not (I suck at battle scenes anyway).**

**So tell me what you think of it, good? Bad? Worse then bad? Better then good, **

**IMPORTANT: people you need to start voting on whether Haku and Zabuza should return to Konoha, I've already posted the poll onto my profile the results:**

**Both return – 4**

**Zabuza returns Haku dies – 1**

**Both die – 1**

**Both live but return later on into the story – 1**

**Haku returns Zabuza dies – 0**

**Both live but don't return – 0**

**(sweatdrop) come on guys that's pretty pathetic….so come on guys vote please =D**

**anyway that's all for now and as always review! XD**

**ja ne, Shika XD**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not, will not, can not ever own Naruto, unless by some god given miracle I do, Naruto would have been a girl and end up with a certain Uchiha's child, I'll leave you guessing who ;p**

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***Cough* ignoring the message above and moving on sorry for bringing this chapter out so late, my net ended up stuffing up. Oh and thank you for all you're reviews! I'm loving them! And thanks to all those people who have stuck with this fanfic from the start much appreciated! **

'_Thinking'_

"Talking"

"**Kyuubi Talking"**

'_**Kyuubi thinking'**_

"_**Inner Sakura Thinking"**_

"**Inner Sakura Talking"**

**Jutsu's **

*actions*

_Flashbacks_

**Well enjoy the story =D **

* * *

**Naruto: Hell's Way of Thanks**

**Chapter 5: Visiting Truths**

**Shika XD**

In an instant what was a normal (well what could be considered normal in these circumstances) day had been turned into a complete disaster as Naruto found himself slowly bleeding to death, from his new stab wound and if the stab wound didn't kill him the poison injected into him would.

* * *

~Flashback no Jutsu~

_Two ninja's melted out from the puddle, and dashed to each side of Kakashi, bringing out a thick, shuriken chain, wrapping it around the surprised jounin, the two pulled the chains, effectively ripping Kakashi to peaces "One down". _

_Sakura held back a scream and froze in shock, before being brought out of it by Sasuke's sudden movements, sprinting in front of a terrified Tazuna she pulled out a kunai holding it in front of her the way the Academy had taught her, watching the two rogue shinobi and calculating their movements, slowly formulating a plan to use their weaknesses to her advantage if needed._

_Both rogue shinobi sprang passed the heap that was once Kakashi and made their way at unimaginable speed towards Naruto, appearing behind him, Sasuke immediately sprang into action hesitating only when Naruto did a back flip to avoid the on coming attack. _

_Having distracted them with the back flip, Naruto sent a sign to Sasuke to get a move on before they notice him, appearing above both ninja's next to Naruto he sent a shuriken hurling at the shuriken chain, pinning it to a tree doing the same to the other end of the weapon next and embedding two kunai through the center of the stars to hold both weapons in place while also disabling their opponents arms. _

_Naruto landed behind the two while Sasuke landed on top of their clawed arms _(A/N: well their hands are clawed but work with me here)_ Using his arms to hoist himself up he landed a chakra empowered kick to their faces sending both sprawling backwards, also effectively ripping the shuriken chain out of their sockets and hanging limp from the tree's. _

_This gave the demons brothers freedom, both dashed past Naruto straight to Tazuna and Sakura who pushed her client out of harms way, sweat slowly dripping from her face onto the dusty floor ready to put the already formulated plan to action. _

_Naruto suddenly appeared in front of the pink haired female and the drunken client the attack came too soon as the blond found himself holding back two clawed hands with nothing but a kunai. Slowly being pushed back he motioned for Sakura to usher Tazuna away from the blond and the two mist shinobi. _

_Losing concentration on what he was doing Naruto slipped back, giving the two shinobi a clear shot for a killing blow, just then Sasuke appeared behind them knocking one out he was too late to reach the other, Naruto took the attack head on._

_Blood splattered everywhere, Naruto held the clawed hand from going any deeper into his shoulder then it already had, the mist Shinobi was suddenly ripped out of his grasp when Kakashi came holding the demon brother under his arm, and knocking him out._

~End Flashback no Jutsu~

* * *

"You're late" Naruto growled out to his sensei who laughed nervously, panting for breath he slid down a tree holding his stab wound, everyone watching him, "You better tie them up before they regain consciousness" Kakashi hesitated before nodding to his student turning to Sasuke he motioned for him to follow, hesitating he took one last look at the blond who gave him one of his goofy smiles before following his sensei.

Naruto turned to the pink haired female who was staring in horror, "Sakura!" she snapped out of her daze and ran up to him, kneeling down next to the blond,

"In my cloak in the bottom left hand pocket there is a scroll," Sakura fumbled with his cloak trying to reach the scroll.

'_Kyuubi how's it looking?'_

"**You're hearts going to stop within four minutes, if you don't find the antidote"** the beast replied calmly

'_Oh, joy, don't heal me completely just slow it down'_ Kyuubi was curious as to what the boy was up to but followed his orders all the same, finally reaching the scroll, Naruto told her to smear his blood on it, she hesitated

"Listen Sakura my hearts going to stop in little under four minutes now I don't care if you're worried about getting your hands dirty or breaking a nail, just do it!" Sakura yelped under his command and smeared the blood on it,

'_Do you know what it is yet?' _

"**Venticular Tachycardia. Digitalis."** Naruto fumbled with his memory, trying to find the antidote. A small poof sounded throughout the clearing and medical supplies appeared in front of both him and Sakura,

"Sakura, I need you to take the defibilator from the pouch" he panted, it was getting harder to breath Sakura fumbled hurriedly as she pulled the device apart.

"Clam down" Naruto muttered, Sakura threw him a glare, Naruto chuckled

"Now attach the leads to my chest" Sakura wasted no time and ripped his shirt apart (A/N: No not that way you dirty minded people, shame on you all ;p) and attached them securely onto his chest.

While all this was happening Kakashi and Sasuke watched on curiously,

'_Why is it Kyuubi isn't healing you Naruto? Because he can't? No, more like you're not letting him…Why?_' Kakashi glanced at Sakura

'_I_s_ this why you're not letting Kyuubi heal you, to teach Sakura?'_ Kakashi watched on confused,

"Sakura wait for it to load when it does push the red button, you only have one chance before you can get my heart beating again" Naruto panted his breathing labored Sakura nodded her head nervously watching the device intently, wishing for it to hurry up.

The last little screen lit up, she moved hurriedly to push the button, Naruto's eyes widened '_it's Lidocrane!'_

"Sakura don't push the red button yet!" Sakura's hands froze over the button she looked up at Naruto, eye's widened in fear

"Take the blue combipen Sakura, mid-neck into my vein" Sakura nodded moving quickly she took it and injected the liquid into his vein, Naruto winced

'_She could've been a bit more gentle'_ he grumbled inwardly, forgetting the fact that was about to die in little less then a minute. Naruto's vision went blurry, his breathing stopped all together, Naruto fell back a bit more slipping, drenched in sweat

"Naruto!" Sakura's eyes widened in alarm seeing his sturggle.

Kakashi rushed over to his student, Naruto's lips moved but Sakura couldn't hear him, screaming at him to speak louder Naruto used his last ounce of strength to mumble out the words

"press, the fucking, god-damn button" before he fell back unconscious Sakura didn't need telling twice she pushed down on the red button, Naruto's body jerked, before he shot up gasping for breath, looking around wildly his vision stopped at Sakura who by now had tears gently pouring down her cheeks

"You okay?" He asked Sakura looked at him as if he had grown another head

"ME!" Naruto laughed wiping some of the sweat off of his face, Tazuna and Sasuke looked at Naruto wearily as if he were to fall dead any second, Kakashi just sighed not even bothering to try to find out what was going on in the mind of his student, for now.

Soon all five were walking down the dusty road again (that is after Tazuna had been interrogated), Kakashi picked up his pace discretely stepping side by side with Naruto

"Why didn't Kyuubi heal you?" He asked in a low voice keeping his head in his little orange book,

"I told him not to" was all Naruto said before picking up his pace and struck a conversation with Tazuna. Kakashi looked on at the small boy frowning

'_What are you up to Naruto? Did you intentionally get hurt when you could have easily dodged that attack? But why?'_ Kakashi thought over Naruto's words and looked over at Sakura

'_Was it so you could test her in those types of situations? Or was it to show her that being ninja isn't as glamorous as she thought it would be? Are you trying to get her to realize what being ninja is about?'_ he sighed

"Why did I pass this team again?" Kakashi wondered as he went back to reading his book.

* * *

They continued down the track stopping only to eat and sleep, a day had passed since the incident and Sakura was more alert then ever now keeping talking to a minimum low, which Tazuna and Sasuke were thankful for.

Everyone kept their eye on Naruto, all wondering weather he was really okay, well except for Kakashi who was listening to Naruto chat animatedly to him. Kakashi kept his one eyed smile on his face as his cute student talked and waved his arms in the air making imitations, only to pitch in to the conversation every now and then making Naruto grin widely at the jokes he made.

Yet the atmosphere suddenly changed when Naruto stopped abruptly facing the bushes his eyes narrowed, before widening and then going back to normal, Kakashi who had seen the whole thing walked up to Naruto putting his hand on the blonds shoulder giving him a questioning look.

Naruto looked up at his sensei and grinned "Ah, just a little chest pain, must have been an aftermath of the poison, I'll be fine" he said, Kakashi nodded not believing his student's lie for one second.

But continued walking, Naruto close at his heels, looking back at the bushes, he came into contact with blood red eye's with a spiked wheel in the centre. Naruto gave the eyes a knowing look before turning back to Kakashi and continuing the conversation, the eyes followed the blond figure until he was out of sight, all the while wondering how had the blond known?

* * *

That night after making camp, Naruto separated himself from the rest of the group saying he was going down to the river to take a bath, making his way through the thick foliage a small river came into view. Walking down to the river he felt a presence behind him yet made no sign that he had noticed the dark figure, going to bend down to feel the temperature of the water he felt something cold and sharp come into contact with his skin. Naruto smiled a little

"Good Afternoon….Itachi-kun"

"Naruto-kun"

The wind picked up, making the surrounding foliage sway and shudder in its grasp, no signs of life interfered with the two, the two stood still before Itachi dug the kunai further into Naruto's neck, making the blonds smile widen.

"Ne, Itachi-kun how about you stop the act?" Naruto murmured under his breath knowing Itachi would hear it loud and clear. The other male looked down curiously at the blond

"And why, Naruto-kun, would you believe I am acting?" the male asked the volume of his voice matching Naruto's.

"…I know more then you could imagine Itachi-kun, I know you're innocent" was the only response Naruto gave before disappearing from sight, leaving an intrigued Itachi behind, lowering the kunai in his hand Itachi gave a small smirk, before disappearing into the night himself.

Naruto watched him go from behind a tree, a smile formed onto his features

'_He is interested…good'_

'**Kit, what are you up to? Are you trying to get Sasuke to stay or leave?'** Naruto gave a small smile

'_Don't worry kyuubi I know exactly what I'm doing'_

'**That's what worries me'** the demon grumbled, Naruto frowned

'_What's that supposed to mean? …Kyuubi? *Gasp* It can't be…You don't trust me! Why kyuubi? I thought we were friends'_ Chibi Naruto sat in front of Kyuubi's cage hugging his knee's with anime tears streaming down his face _**'And he wonders why I don't trust him, damn gaki'**_ The beast retreated back into the blonds mind, leaving Naruto to weep alone.

After a while he got up and took his bath, upon returning to the camp site he came face to face with Sasuke. Both gave each other blank looks, and stood like that for three minutes before Naruto opened his mouth speak but Sasuke beat him to it

"Want to prank Kakashi-sensei again?" the blond smiled widely

"You read my mind Uchiha" giving him a smirk the raven replied with a

"Well, they say great minds do think a like" Naruto's eye's widened before he dashed to the nearest tree and hid behind it, peering out from the side he glared at Sasuke with squinting eye's

"Who are you and what have you done with Sasuke, he would never say something as nice as that to anyone!" Sasuke sweat dropped before walking up to Naruto, who took a defensive guard, and bobbed him on the head.

Naruto fell face first into the floor from the force of the hit, getting up he rubbed his head, pouting at Sasuke he stuck his tongue out

"Mean-y, can't you take a joke" Sasuke got an anime vain pop on his head as he tried to keep his normal façade on

"Are we going to do this prank or not?" he growled out, Naruto looked up from the ground with big round shining eye

"Hell yeah!" earning him a small smirk from his companion.

* * *

**Sorry guys this is a short chapter and somewhat of a cliffy, I'm evil =D What's Naruto planning? What does Itachi want? Next time it's swords, needles, jutsu's and a whole lot of itching powder...**

**wait, what? =P 'till next time.**

**Oh and sorry about the crappy battle scene I told you I'm not good at those (sweatdrop)**

H**aku dies Zabuza returns – 3**

**Zabuza dies Haku returns – 1**

**Both die – 1**

**Both return – 10**

**Both live but don't return – 1**

**Both live but return later on into the story – 3**

**Don't like it then start voting….and review! =D**

**Shika XD**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not, will not, can not own Naruto….well I could if I bothered trying…but I'm not bothered so I won't try =D**

**Sorry the chapter was so late everyone = S, ma bad anyway enjoy the show!...or narrative which ever you prefer.**

**Enjoy!

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Naruto awoke to the sound of screaming, he shot up out of his tent kunai ready in his hand, looking around wildly he spotted Kakashi and Sasuke in the same defensive position he was in, while behind them was a terrified looking Tazuna. All tensed as a rustle came from the nearby foliage, Naruto's eyes narrowed as he raised his kunai ready to strike when needed, that is until he saw Sakura's tear-stained face, looking around wildly for any rogue shinobi that might have held her captive. He stood their confused until he realized why she had been crying, taking another look at her he fell to the floor bursting with laughter. Tazuna's boisterous laugh soon joined his, Kakashi gave a little chuckle why Sasuke gave an amused smirk, Sakura glared at them all.

Standing in front of them was a fuming white haired Sakura, her hair seemed to be dyed poorly with paint and was sticking up in all places. The paint seemed to have dried and crusted over night making it look as if she had a terrible dandruff problem. Sakura turned and fixated her glare on Naruto who looked up at her meeting her gaze, tears in his eyes from laughing so hard "You know, I don't think people were trying to be literal when they said 'Christmas in July' Sakura" He chocked out between all the laughter "_**Naruto**_"

She growled out, sadness forgotten, she strode forward towards the laughing blond who took no notice of her "_**You did this didn't you**_" She stated menacingly, Naruto's laughter stopped almost immediately, he gave her angry frown,

"Sakura I know you're mad but you shouldn't go wrongly accusing people like that." The pi-er-white haired female's glare turned into an icy storm as her anger reached whole new levels. Her whole body shook as she tried to control her anger and refrain herself from killing the young shinobi in front of her, but unfortunately was doing a poor job at it, thankfully Kakashi happened to intervene at this moment to stop the situation from developing into something uncontrollable.

"Ma, Sakura calm down I'm sure theirs a perfectly reasonable explanation for how and why this happened" Kakashi said nervously, his visible eye in an upturned 'U' shape, while his hands were in front of him stopping the pi-er-white haired girl from stepping any further towards Naruto. Sakura gave her sensei a disbelieving look, clenching her fists she rose one arm so the her fist was next to her face, narrowing her eyes, eyebrows twitching she shook in anger

"Kaka-sensei… HOW CAN THEIR BE A LOGICAL EXPLINATION FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS!" she shouted pointing at her head, more specifically her hair. That was it for Tazuna who burst out laughing clutching his stomach, Naruto soon joined him dropping back on the floor in fits of laughter, Sasuke who was watching from the side-lines with Tazuna gave a little chuckle. Kakashi gave Sakura a sympathetic one-eyed smile, his hands still in front of him stopping a fuming Sakura from murdering anybody (namely Naruto).

Having calmed everyone down Sakura continued to accuse Naruto for ruining her hair, Naruto in turn argued that he was innocent of the 'crime' committed. Kakashi finally made Sakura agree to wait 'till they get to Tazuna's house to fix it, brushing her now unruly hair, well trying to, she just gave up and tied it into a high messy bun, letting a few strands fall onto her features before begrudgingly agreeing to her sensei's proposition and all were again on the road and on their way to Tazuna's house.

Looking back Naruto slowed his pace evening it with Sasuke's, "You couldn't wait until we pranked Kakashi?" Naruto mumbled under his breath folding his arms behind his head. Sasuke smirked, shrugging he said "You were taking your time I had to do something to pass the time, besides she was getting on my nerves" He murmured back to his blond comrade.

"Hmm" Looking back at Sasuke he smirked "You're really catching on to this prank thing, almost like a natural" Sasuke smirked "I'm a natural at everything dobe, I'm still surprised at how slow you can be" Naruto let out a little growl, turning away from the raven he let out a little "hmph" '_Well not like I didn't see that one coming…Damn that arrogant bastard_'.

Soon all five of them found themselves on a boat, crossing over to the land of the waves, a mist seemed to have settled in the surrounding area. Naruto peered over the edge of the boat at an unfinished bridge, but although unfinished it was still impressive, the blond smiled at the bridge all the while thinking how much good the old man was doing for his country.

Tazuna caught the smile and smiled himself, he tilted his hat to hide it, suddenly the boat started to rock as Naruto jumped up and down in excitement pointing at the bridge "old man, old man, that's your bridge right! right!" Tazuna didn't have time to answer as he grabbed onto the boat, hoping not to fall over the edge from all the rocking, everyone else following his lead "O-oi! Dobe! Stop jumping you're rocking the boat baka!"

Naruto stopped and turned to Sasuke a smirk on his face, "Why scared Uchiha?" he taunted Sasuke glared at him "I'm not scared of anything dobe"

"Oh really" his smirk got wider, suddenly planting a horrfied look on his face he pointed behind the raven and shouted "The Fan-girls are coming!" Sasuke's eyes widened as both he and Kakashi hid behind Naruto screaming. Naruto looked oddly at Kakashi as did everyone else, the silver haired jounin rubbed the back of his head "Ma, we all got our problems"

Sakura giggled, Naruto, Tazuna and Sasuke sweatdropped _'What kind of taste do girls have these days?'_ the blond thought as he looked down at a smiling Kakashi, shaking his head he sighed.

"We'll be their soon" the owner of the boat said suddenly, Naruto sat back down resting his back on the side of the boat, his arms resting on the edge, as Tazuna and the boats owner discussed the best possible way to cross without being detected. The blond looked back down into the deep abyss that was the sea, his heart skipped a beat as he saw a large shadow move under the surface of the water. Turning around he leaned back over the edge trying to make out what the object might be, _'Probably just a fish'_ he reasoned with himself, he clearly remembered the fight with Zabuza to be on land….although Kakashi did get trapped in a sphere made of water… he reached in his pouch digging out a kunai.

"What are you doing Dobe?" Sasuke mumbled, Naruto turned to look at his team-mate his finger on his lip, Kakashi looked at them from over his book, suddenly tense sneaking his own hand into his pouch he pulled out his own kunai hiding it discreetly. Taking it upon himself to look over his side of the boat he found himself shooting back as a large (A/N: and I'm talking 7meters long) 'fish', jaws wide open, hundreds of razor teeth protruding out of red gums, deep black beady eyes, soaked in water leaped out of the water diving over them and the boat. Everyone stopped and stared awed until Naruto said

"It's a shark"

That's when it hit them, they were alone in the middle of the mist, on a boat surrounded by water with no way of getting help. The shark rocked the boat as it entered the waters surface again, creating a large wave to wash over them, a-now-soaking-wet-Naruto looked over his side of the boat excitedly

"Ne,ne Kakashi-sensei, can we keep him?" everyone turned to Naruto to see if he was joking looking over they were sorely disappointed to see that his eyes were shining like a kid whose Christmas came early. He was giddy with excitement as the shark surfaced again it's black beady eye studying them, before going under again "Sugoi! So cool, please Kakashi-sensei, I promise I'll take care of it and feed it…" (he glanced side ways at Sakura, who shrunk away eyes wide with terror) "…Ne do you think I can teach it how to roll over?" Naruto shook with glee a happy grin on his face suddenly he stopped and put his finger to his jaw in a thinking manner he said to himself

"I wonder how long it take's for a shark to maul a human?" he glanced sideways again catching Sasuke's eye along the way, amusement danced in the ravens eyes. '_great way to pass the time, isn't it dobe'_

"Should we test it out?" he suddenly found himself saying as he also glanced at Sakura who didn't know weather to be mad with rage or wetting her pants terrified she decided for the first option, she shook with anger and shouted with al her might "NO!" both boys looked at her then turned away saying "Party pooper"

Kakashi sweatdropped along with Tazuna, the boats owner looked at them like they were all nut cases (A/N: well they are). Kakashi saw the shark coming a full speed , Naruto also noticed only his face was shining with delight in a matter of seconds he said as fast as he could "No, Naruto you can't have it, no matter how much you try it won't work, you can't transport a shark, and no you can't test feed Sakura to it and finally are you freaking crazy!?"

Taking a much needed breath he tossed Naruto out of the way just as the shark surfaced once again diving towards them at unimaginable speed, but fortunately Kakashi was faster and whipped out his katana slicing the beast in half. Naruto gasped "No Kisame" Sasuke turned around "you named it?" Naruto nodded depressed "And after a strong warrior too" Sasuke gave Naruto a confused look, "…Warroir?" Naruto nodded again pulling a book out from his pocket flipping the pages he stopped and showed Sasuke, who read out the name "Kisame Hoshigaki" Kakashi whipped around after putting away his Katana.

"Where did you get that?!" he said pointing at the book, both males looked up from the book "Hm, this? I got it out of your back pocket, it's a good read at night when I'm bored" Kakashi sweatdropped, suddenly the boats owner butted in "We're here" _finally, thank God_ he added to himself, Naruto looked around I didn't know we were moving Sakura gave him a –you're-an-idiot-look before getting off the boat. "Well he does look like him" Sasuke said looking back towards the shark, "I think they're cousins" Naruto said also looking curiously at the photo and the shark, Sasuke just nodded in agreement, creeping up behind them Sakura let out a gasp of surprise,"they do look the same!" both males turned towards her and nodded, Kakashi just sweatdropped again, hauling the creatures head off the boat.

* * *

After all were off Tazuna and the boats owner exchanged a few words before all were on their way again; Coming closer to a clearing and looking around, Naruto found the place familiar as his eyes landed on the lake up ahead his senses suddenly became sharper, on pure instinct he whipped a kunai out of pouch embedding it deep into a trunk of a tree. Suddenly on full alert Kakashi put away his book, searching the bushes where the kunai was thrown he came out holding a scared to death white rabbit, looking at it curiously Sakura rounded onto Naruto shouting at him for playing around and almost injuring a innocent rabbit.

Ignoring her, Naruto studied his surroundings, suddenly realization hit both Naruto and Kakashi, the young shinobi's ears pricked as he heard a large object whirr through the air heading straight for them, tackling Tazuna to the ground he yelled "GET DOWN" Sasuke who was now closest to Sakura tackled her down to the floor while Kakashi dodged the oncoming sword. Picking themselves up they looked up just in time to see the sword curve up and imbed itself into a nearby tree, suddenly a large figure landed on the hilt of the sword gazing down at them. His gaze landed on Kakashi, who tensed ready for battle, smirking a little his eyes bored into Kakashi's visible one.

"No wonder the demon brothers were defeated, Sharingan Kakashi, sorry but….the old man is mine." Sasuke's eye's widened _'Sharingan!?_' Tazuna and Sakura lifted themselves off the floor, alarmed and confused, Kakashi never backed down, he narrowed his eye trying to identify the shinobi in front of him, finally identifying him he reached up for his forehead-protector. "Well, well if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Bloody Mist, A-ranked missing-nin…"

"Oh, so you've heard of me.."

"…Also nothing I can't handle"

Kakashi said giving the missing-nin a one eyed smile as he lifted up his protector revealing his Sharingan eye, Zabuza's eyes narrowed in annoyance at the comment "Surround and protect Tazuna, do not enter the battle" The silver haired shinobi called to his students from over his shoulder. Immediately Sakura did as she was told Sasuke was a little slower as he did this, his mind on Kakashi's Sharingan eye, not quite sure what to make of it. Soon both genin were in front of a shaking Tazuna.

"Ah, I already get to see the famous Sharingan. I'm honored"

"So you should be, come"

Faster then the 'normal' eye could see Zabuza shot out of his original position and disappeared reappearing on the lake up ahead, the water unsettled and swirled around his legs, he kept his head down, his right hand in front of his chest only his index finger pointed up touching the tip of his jaw, while his left hand was in the air his all but his index and middle finger were down.

'_He's releasing a high amount of chakra'_ Kakashi assessed

"Ninpou.._Hidden Mist no Jutsu_"

All too sudden Zabuza seemed to disappear, and the area was suddenly enveloped in a thick mist "H-He, disappeared" Sakura gasped out, she clenched the kunai in her hand tighter, eye's wide with alert, Sasuke kept his cool, examining his surroundings. All was quiet until Kakashi spoke his thoughts out loud, not only warning his students but also reminding himself and them that he was not invincible.

"He'll come after me first. Momochi Zabuza as a member of the Hidden Mist…he was known as an expert in silent killing. You don't even notice that you're dead. It's not like I can use my Sharingan perfectly. You guys be careful."

All the while no one noticed their small bundle of sunshine joy was….missing.

* * *

Naruto hopped from tree to tree a wide smile on his face, the soft wind blowing in his face as he rushed through the foliage concealing himself within the forests shelter he snuck up behind a nearby figure, their hair tied into a tight bun having part of the front of their hair frame their petit face, although it was covered by a strange looking red and white mask, with the mist symbol on top of it.

Grabbing a kunai he silently made his way towards the shinobi before quicker then the normal eye could see he had pulled out a kunai and pressed it against Haku's throat. Although not seen Haku's eyes widened and froze completely, "Ne, missing-nin kun want to make a deal?" the whisker marked child asked enthusiastically. Haku shook out of his stupor and calmed his nerves "Shinobi-san I am not a missing-nin, I am a hunter-nin from the mist" he began keeping his voice from shaking from fear of being caught.

"Ah, is that right?" Naruto asked a mocking edge to his voice, his features were upturned into an amused smile, "Then why is it that you have not come down to help us, a group of genins being attacked ruthlessly by a dangerous A-ranked missing-nin while their sensei is caught trapped in a water prison. You would think that help would come in such a hopeless situation."

"Shinobi-san, I would help but unfortunately you are the one who is keeping me from doing so" Haku replied coolly, Naruto blinked then grinned bashfully, he chuckled a bit "I guess I am" Letting go of the male, Haku spun around throwing a senbon aimed straight for Naruto's neck, said blond stood their watching passively as the senbon drew closer to hitting it's target, before swatting it away effortlessly. Haku's eye's widen but before he could do anything else, the genin disappeared and reappeared behind Haku, kunai once again back in its original position

"See, I told you, you were a Missing-nin" he said cheerfully, all the while smiling at Haku, who gritted his teeth. "So…how about you listen to my proposition?"

* * *

Meanwhile, the rest of team seven and Tazuna were in a dire situation as Sasuke and Sakura found themselves up against an A-ranked missing-nin's clone and even though it was just a clone it was still much more powerful then them. What was worse was, their sensei had made a rookie mistake and underestimated their enemy as well as gotten himself captured leaving their client wide open for the taking and his students for dead. And Sasuke still had no idea where the dobe went! He quickly calculate the situation, unknown to him as did Sakura, her eye's darted to Zabuza and the clone Zabuza in front of herself and Sasuke.

Grasping her kunai tighter in her hand she ignored Kakashi's shouts to flee, what kind of idiot was he? Even if they did flee they would not be able to escape, they were up against a man who was a master at concealing himself, not to mention he had far surpassed them in speed. They would barley make it to the next tree before getting captured! _'Besides, those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are trash but those who abandon their comrades are worse then trash'_ A small glint passed through Sakura's eye, both Kakashi and Zabuza saw it, but had no idea what it meant. Sakura channeled her chakra discretely through her arm, ignoring Sasuke's shouts back to Kakashi and his short response to Tazuna. She blocked all sound out just remembering what Naruto had taught her,

* * *

Flashback No Jutsu:

"_No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong Sakura, you need to concentrate, and control how much chakra is needed, because you have such small reserves you need to be careful of how much chakra you put into you attack, you can't afford to use excess chakra"_

_Sakura sighed in frustration, she had been at this for an hour, Naruto and Sasuke had came back from where ever the hell they went and the blond immediately pulled her to he side and she found herself trying to completely crumble a boulder of all things, to half it's size._

"_Hai" she panted, Naruto watched over her from a nearby tree, he watched as her face scrunched up in frustration, he saw the chakra being channeled through her arm _'that's it,'_ he thought smiling, Sakura's eye's shot open charging to the boulder she threw her arm out in front of her on contact the boulder exploded, making shards of stone fly everywhere. Sakura was on the ground on all fours in front of the now half destroyed boulder panting, Naruto gave a light smile, before it disappeared. _

"_Alright, since you destroyed that half of the boulder, I want you to destoy the other half as well, when you do that, go on to the next boulder an try to turn the whole thing to dust." Sakura gawked, _

"_Isn't this enough?!" She shouted pointing at the 'boulder' in front of her, Naruto shook his head "Do you think Sasuke is going to be impressed by boulder that was only half destroyed?" Sakura turn quiet, before a look of determination passed through her eyes, Naruto smiled again before disappearing. "Ah right, Naruto how do you kno…" Sakura turned around to see nothing, glancing around in all directions she found she was alone._

_She sighed and turned back to the boulder once again._

End Flashback no Jutsu!

* * *

Sakura looked directly into Zabuza's eyes and smirked, catching the male off guard she punched the ground, causing chunks of the earths floor to be thrown into the air everywhere, the ground beneath them cracked, the crack continued through the sea floor, towards the other side, the earth shook and vibrated while it moved clashing with the other side causing a enormous tsunami. Zabuza not wanting to get in the way of the monstrous wave fled away from the waters surface, effectively freeing Kakashi who gathered Tazuna in his arms and jumped into the trees, behind him Sakura and a gawking Sasuke did the same.

Peeking at Sasuke from the corner of her eye she giggled "_**CHA! Girl power rules!**_" forgetting for a moment that she had gotten this power from Naruto, Kakashi landed on a nearby branch and smiled at Sakura "Good job, although you did disobey my orders, but your punishment will come later" Sakura fumed "Sorry for not abandoning my comrades" She shouted turning away, Kakashi gave her a one-eyed smile, before doing a head count.

"….Where's Naruto?....."

Meanwhile down underneath the foliage, concealed perfectly into his surroundings, crimson eyes continued to watch a young blond male.

* * *

**Okay, another crappy chapter but you can take that up with me when you review =)**

**Next time it's enemies and friends clashing together, a whole lot of confusion, and feathers??**

**Well you'll figure it out soon enough, if not you're just going to have to wait until the next chapter.**

**And sorry it came so late, school started again and I'm being bombarded with homework. Anyway review!**

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**POLLS!**

**Haku dies Zabuza returns – 3**

**Zabuza dies Haku returns – 1**

**Both die – 1**

**Both return – 14**

**Both live but don't return – 2**

**Both live but return later on into the story – 3**

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****Don't like it then change it there's still time ; )**

**Shika XD**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters!**

**Enjoy! Sorry for brining the chapter out so late, I'll try and be faster next time!**

* * *

"Talking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Kyuubi talking"**

_**(Kyuubi thinking)**_

"**Inner Sakura talking"**

* * *

Crimson eyes with three tomoe continued to watch the blond fox, amusement dancing like fire in them, the spinning orbs flickered over to the blonds team mates, his eyes focusing on the raven haired figure of the group. He would come again, but later now was not the time, crimson eyes disappeared, taking with it a soft breeze.

* * *

Kakashi's ears pricked as he heard the rustle of foliage, quickly guarding himself with a kunai he turned to the source of the noise to find….nothing? Searching around for good measure he finally put the kunai away, looking back to his students, his expression serious,

"Stay up here, do not enter the fight" Sakura snorted in an unladylike fashion grumbling about ungrateful perverts. Kakashi gave her a one-eyed smile before disappearing from view, both Sakura and Sasuke shifted their positions to get a better view of the battle occurring below, both oblivious to what was about to happen next.

* * *

"So, do we have a deal?" Haku gritted his teeth, _'do I have a choice?'_ he thought sarcastically "Of course you have a choice missing-nin-kun, you just have to make the right one" The feminine shinobi's eyes widened, had he spoken aloud?

"Nope, your body language is just easy to read"

Haku's eye twitched in annoyance at the cheerful blond, he was too happy, couldn't he be more serious in this type of situation? Sighing the missing-nin nodded in agreement, Naruto's grin got wider, letting his hand fall and putting away the kunai he waved to the fake hunter-nin "Don't forget what _you_ agreed to Haku-kun" before he disappeared into the foliage, leaving Haku crouching with his fists clenched, not quite sure where to go from there. Then he noticed it '_How does he know my name?'_

* * *

Meanwhile chibi Naruto was doing a little victory dance, waving his hands in the air while he turned around shaking his body, Kyuubi watched with a sweatdrop planted onto his forehead, yet again. He knew it Kami-sama was playing some twisted foul trick on him, he always said that the God had his head on backwards!

He decided now would be the time to crush the chibi's happy moment with the flaws Naruto had just created in his own plans. **"Oi kit, you revealed the nin's name to him, you're not meant to know it"**

Naruto froze immediately, assuming the thinking position he sat in the water filled cavern _**(Three, two, one…)**_ in a flash Naruto was bouncing up and down the walls in panic. All the while Kyuubi watched the show in amusement before the great demon turned around and left the blond to solve the problem on his own.

"Ahhh! Kyuubi you got to help me!" The great demon didn't even stir

"Kyuubi" He whined, nothing

"I'll be your best friend" The great demon stopped breathing stilling all movement as best as he possibly could, before sprinting to the furthest end of his cage out of sight, leaving Naruto pouting at the entrance

"STUPID MUTATED RABBIT!"

A vein popped on top of the foxes head but he did not reply.

Sighing the red and white clad boy opened his eyes peering into the clearing he saw Zabuza and Kakashi in a headlock of jutsu's, looking further into the distance he saw Tazuna, Sasuke and Sakura watching the battle from above.

Not much further ahead he saw Haku ready to strike, Naruto smiled, these were the good ol' days, if only things could stay like this so simple, no wars or deaths…pfft what a dream world.

Shaking his head to rid himself of his thoughts he disappeared forward towards the tree where his teammates sat in hiding.

He landed in front of Tazuna who jumped back in shock clutching his chest, Sasuke and Sakura who were too engrossed in the battle took no notice of the blond who had just appeared behind them. Naruto peered at his sensei's battle from over his teammates' shoulders,

"Ah if sensei doesn't be careful he might get trapped in a water prison again"

Sakura screamed with a jolt of shock she unbalanced herself and went sailing over the edge of the branch, Sasuke jumped back a kunai in hand, Naruto wasted no time and caught onto Sakura's hand, smiling down at the white haired girl. Sasuke just muttered a curse at the blond while Sakura settled for trying to attack Naruto, who laughed it off that is until Sakura whipped out a kunai, the weapon sailed through the air, Naruto just smiled as he dodged it, but the shift in weight unbalanced him

"Uh oh…"

Sakura's eyes went wide along with Tazuna's and Sasuke's as both blond and strawberry blond tumbled over the edge and landed with a rather loud 'thud' on the earthen floor below. Rushing to the edge Sasuke and Tazuna held their breath at the position Naruto and Sakura were in.

Both their faces were extremely close to each other, their breaths mingled with one anothers, Sakura's hands were placed on the floor on either side of Naruto's head, while the blonds hands were on the girls shoulders stopping her from coming down on him further then she already had. Loose strands of hair came out of the messy bun and tickled Naruto's cheeks, the young shinobi jolted himself out of his stupor swallowing he said in all seriousness

"Ne, Sakura I'm flattered at the offer, really I am but… I don't go for flat chested women"

Sasuke and Tazuna fell feet up in the air, while Sakura went beet red in anger and embarrassment before pounding Naruto's head in the ground (literally) and stomped away. Recovering Sasuke jumped down to inspect his teammate, who was now trying to get his head out of the ground "You had that one coming"

Naruto with one last push popped his head out of the ground falling back on his behind. He grinned up at Sasuke "But it was worth every second" Sasuke smirked at his grinning and weird teammate.

"…Saaa, what are you guys doing?"

All turned towards the 'newcomer' "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto bounced right up towards the ninja jumping up and down in front of him waving his hands in the air excitedly "Did you beat him? Huh? Did you, did you, did you?!"

Kakashi sweatdropped at his enthusiastic student "Ah…h-hai"

"Sugoi! That's so cool" Kakashi smiled at his student before inspecting everyone else seeing Tazuna climbing carefully down the tree mumbling something about crazy shinobi, Sasuke was giving Naruto a summary of what happened while he was gone, and Sakura….she was looking down poking her chest, she leaned on a nearby tree as depression lines appeared over her head.

The Cyclops sighed, why was it he was always stuck with the weird ones? Suddenly things got blurry he swayed before falling face first towards the floor, the last thing he heard was his students shouting his name before everything went black.

* * *

Kakashi woke up to unfamiliar surroundings, he immediately tensed up "Ah you're awake" Kakashi's head whipped around, an smiling young woman came into his vision she carried a wet towel, approaching him she knelt down, taking the warm towel off of Kakashi's forehead and replaced it with the cold one

"You probably shouldn't move very much" Kakashi gave the woman a confused look, seeing the look on his face the female stuttered realizing she hadn't introduced herself

"Gomen, my name is Tsunami, I am…"

"Tazuna's daughter" Kakashi said suddenly remembering that his client did indeed have a daughter and that they were probably at his house. Tsunami nodded a warm smile spreading across her features "I can't thank you enough for continuing on this mission" she said bowing and showing quite a large amount of cleavage

'_It's time's like this that I can't help but love my job'_ Kakashi thought suppressing a perverted giggle "Ah!" Tsunami shot up, for one horrifying moment Kakashi thought she had saw him peeking but then "I almost forgot you might be wondering where your students are Kakashi-san"

The scarecrow suppressed a groan leave it to his cute students to ruin his fun, but he nodded all the same. Explaining that they were out the back training, Kakashi asked if they had anything that would be able to support him enough to walk. Looking hesitant she warned Kakashi that he probably shouldn't move around too much again but exited the room and came back with some crutches all the same.

Smiling at her Kakashi exited out to the back of the house, and came face to face with a sight he really didn't expect to see.

The back yard was indeed a sight to see, a large forest spread out across the landscape while right next to it on the right was a magnificent large lake it crystal surface shining in the summers sun. The greenery of the place was a sight to see, but that's not what had shocked him.

About a quarter with in the deep lake was a knee deep Sasuke trying to balance himself to get onto the surface while Naruto was standing on the surface beside him arms crossed watching him with a stern look on his face. Smiling eerily Naruto shouted out Sasuke's name the raven jumped in shock and disrupted his chakra flow plunging into the deep water. Surfacing he spit a mouthful of water out he glared at the laughing blond above him before grasping his leg and pulling Naruto down beside him.

Naruto yelped as he resurfaced glaring at Sasuke he splashed the raven with water soon both were in a very animated water fight involving the two plunging each others head under the surface. Kakashi sweatdropped at the sight before he turned to face his female student who was engaged in a taijutsu fight against…Naruto?? Huh? As far as he knew Naruto didn't know how to do a clone his chakra supply was too high.

Kakashi's eye widened as he looked closer _'Kagebushin?!'_ Kakashi sighed "You're just full of surprises aren't you?" Kakashi continued to mutter under his breath until he heard a loud bang and the earth beneath him shook hard.

Looking up he found Naruto up mid-air rocks flying around him a smirk planted on his face while Sakura was beneath him in a crater she had just made while trying to punch Naruto. Kakashi's jaw almost dislocated his jaw from how low it dropped, he sighed again, too many surprises he was going to die from a heart attack one day…damn cute students.

The jounin made his presence known and called his students over, ushering them inside, hot, sweaty and dripping wet they all sat around the kitchen table. Kakashi calmly asked Naruto to bring in Tazuna and Tsunami in the kitchen because they needed to hear what he was about to say as well.

After a few moments of silence Naruto came back wit both adults, all sat around the table waiting for Kakashi to start. Finally sick of the pregnant silence Naruto spoke up "What's wrong Sensei?"

Kakashi smiled, as impatient as ever, "Huh, well Hunter-nins usually dispose of the body of the person they killed right there"

Sakura gave a confused look "So, what?"

Kakashi sighed no matter how much they improved physically, they only improved a little mentally. "Don't you see? How did that masked boy dispose of Zabuza's body?"

Sakura's brows furrowed as did Tazuna's Tsunami just looked lost "Ha?" Sakura asked

"How should we know the masked boy took the body with him"

Kakashi's face turned into a grave one "Yeah…If he needed proof of his work he could have just taken the head. And the weapon he used to kill Zabuza?"

Sasuke's brows furrowed _'Simple needles'_ Suddenly everything seemed to click as his eyes widened "No way"

Kakashi just nodded simply Naruto gave a solemn look while everyone else was lost. "Yeah exactly"

Suddenly irritated Tazuna burst out none too kindly "What are you guys talking about?"

'_Pause for dramatic effect'_ Kakashi thought to himself "Most likely Zabuza is alive"

'_And cue shocked faces!'_

Sakura and Tazuna did not disappoint him as their eyes became as large as saucers and their jaws dropped to the floor. How he loved these moments, Tsunami however was still wondering what they were talking about.

"W-What do you mean?! You checked didn't you!??"

Kakashi nodded "yeah I did, but that was most likely a temporary death"

"The weapon the Hunter-nin used unless it hits a vital organ, has a low probability of killing your opponent. Its an item used by doctors in acupuncture therapy. Hunter-nin's know about the body structure thoroughly. Putting a person in a momentary dead state is probably easy for them. First he carried away the body of the much heavier Zabuza. Second he used that weapon that has a low probability of killing. These two points indicate that his motive was not to kill Zabuza but save him. We can not ignore that possibility."

Tazuna frowned at this "Aren't you thinking too much? Hunter-nins are meant to kill missing-nin"

"No, with all the suspicion we will prepare before it's too late. That's the Shinobi rule. Besides, whether Zabuza is alive or not…There's no assurances that Gatou hasn't hired an even stronger shinobi" Kakashi added with a smile completely decapitating the heavy aura that had just surrounded them in the near hopeless situation.

All face faulted at his care-free attitude, Kakashi giggled at his desired reaction, Something then clicked in Sakura as she frowned "Ne, Kakashi-sensei what do you mean prepare before it's too late? You can barely move"

Kakashi smiled at her _'Ah what fun it was to be young and ignorant'_ He giggled gaining even more confusion from the young female

"He means he's going to train us Sakura" Sakura whipped around to Naruto who spoke as did Sasuke before they turned to their still smiling sensei as if to confirm, "Yep!"

"Huh?! Sensei what do you mean train?! What's a little training going to do for us, with an opponent that even you struggled against WITH the Sharingan?!"

"**Are you trying to get us killed?! CHA"** Inner Sakura screamed.

"Sakura who saved me while I was struggling? You guys are improving rapidly" Kakashi smiled down at the three

"But obviously this is just training until I get better, you won't be able to defeat him without me" All ignored Kakashi's suddenly 180 degree turn on the you-guys-are-improving-rapidly speech he just said.

Sakura frowned "But sensei, if Zabuza is alive, he could attack at any time, so should we be training?"

"About that… A person put in a momentary death situation should take a while before their body returns to normal"

"So we train until then" Sasuke muttered

Naruto grinned "Alright sounds like fun!"

"That's not fun…" A small boy around the age of six or seven suddenly entered the kitchen, Naruto frowned as he suddenly remembered _'Damn, I forgot about Inari'_

"Oh!! Inari!!! Where were you?!!" Tazuna suddenly shouted arms stretched out welcoming his grandchild to a comforting hug. "Welcome back…Grandpa…" He said pausing only to take off his sandals and overcome the big step in front of him. Before going and hugging Tazuna, Tsunami frowned and scolded him in a mother like fashion

"Inari say hello to these people, they are the shinobi who protected grandpa"

Inari peered out from his hug with his grandpa to look at the four shinobi, untangling himself from his grandpa he pointed at the four before saying "Mom, they're all going to die" like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Kakashi sweatdropped, Sasuke frowned, Sakura looked up in shock, and Naruto looked on solemnly his arms crossed and leaning back in the chair.

"There's no way you can win against Gatou" No one spoke a heavy silence lingered in the air

"If you don't want to die you should leave" Naruto smirked

"Pfft, like we'll lose to someone like Gatou" he said

Inari frowned "Someone like you won't ever be able to beat Gatou! You're all going to die!"

"Inari!" his mother scolded "It's true…" He turned back to the shinobi "There's no point in trying to do anything you're just going to die anyway!"

Naruto gazed directly into the child's eyes unfazed "Didn't you hear me?! I said you're all going to die so just leave!"

Tsunami moved to calm him until Naruto spoke again "Isn't it better to die protecting something precious then to die cry like a baby?"

Inari's fists tightened at his sides before he ran out the door, Naruto stood up and went to the back door "Naruto where are you going?" Kakshi asked silently, Tightening his fist on the handle he replied calmly "To train" before disappearing from sight.

Kakashi gave a mock smile before saying enthusiastically "Well that was interesting! Don't you think?" Everyone sweatdropped at the jounin. Suddenly the jounin froze and then smiled at Sakura

"Ne Sakura your hair is pink again!" The female's eyebrow twitched before she bashed Kakashi's head

"BE MORE SERIOUS WILL YOU!"

* * *

That night Naruto lay in his futon gazing at the ceiling waiting for his sensei and teammate to fall into a deep slumber, all the while thinking about what to do with Inari.

Maybe he should just leave the situation to play out like last time, it certainly worked although last time around he was a little rough on the kid. Meh whatever it was the kids fault.

Kyuubi sweatdropped the blond was twenty-five and he still thought like a twelve-year-old. The blond peered over at the two shinobi and smiled getting up he revealed he was fully clothed and armed, gathering the rest of his weapons he disappeared out the window and into the night straight towards Gatou's hide out.

Upon arriving he easily dodged all the mercenaries and genin level missing nin, circulating the area he peered through all the room hoping to find his desired one. He stopped as he found a light protruding out of one, carefully peering through it he came just in time to see Haku break Gatou's arm.

The short man howled in pain before stumbling back, after some commotion the two samarai's at his side and Gatou left the room. Inside Naruto was dancing with Maracca's in his hands chanting "Go Haku, it's you birthday, we're going to party like it's your birthday, woot, woot"

Calming himself he didn't catch on to the short conversation that Haku and Zabuza had, becoming part of the shadows he slid into the room sticking to the ceiling everything was quiet.

Finally getting fed up with the silence Naruto plopped down onto the floor, Haku tensed faster then the eye could see he was behind Naruto with a senbon at his throat. Naruto smiled "Ma, Haku-san you no that won't work" He said before he disappeared and reappeared beside Zabuza.

Haku's eye's went wide "So did you tell him?" Naruto asked jabbing his thumb at the missing-nin beside him. Haku slowly shook his head.

Naruto sighed irritably "So what are you waiting for?" Looking back at a curious looking Zabuza he stated simply "I want to make a deal, I've already informed him" Naruto pointed behind him at Haku who was gritting his teeth

"How do you know my name?" Haku asked, Naruto inwardly cursed but turned all the same "It's not like you're not that well known, you're the one that helps Zabuza when he's in trouble that's why he's survived for so long" Well the cover story was decent, kyuubi thought.

But Haku accepted it after a few moments of mulling it over, turning back to Zabuza Naruto smiled down at him "So here's what I was thinking you guys leave Gatou, and I'll pay you double what he's paying you which is pretty good considering he wasn't going to pay you anyway. Plus on top of that I'll be able, if you want, to get you into Konoha free of charge as full fledge ninja's" Naruto finished off.

Both sweatdropped at the kids bluntness, Zabuza frowned, this was a one-way deal "What the hell do you get out of this brat?" Naruto smiled "no enemies to deal with and a whole load of training time!"

Zabuza and Haku sweatdropped again "And if you don't keep this deal?" Zabuza asked "Then I give you permission to kill me on the spot" Naruto said cheerfully, Haku sweatdropped _'Why is he so happy?!'_ Zabuza mulled the thought over before nodding.

Naruto smiled widely "okay so, here's the plan!"

* * *

Naruto plopped down on the futon his head buried in the pillow, oddly he wasn't sleepy just tired. Searching around he decided to go through his belongings, halfway through his weaponry he came across something odd,

"feathers? And ….what the hell is this?" he asked himself then something clicked _'Oh yeah we were meant to do that prank…'_ Naruto looked between the two substances and Sasuke then to Kakashi and smiled eerily.

Prodding the raven awake, Sasuke was on full alert but then relaxed when he saw Naruto he glared at the blond about the ask him what he was doing when Naruto held up the two objects in each hand "Prank time" was all he said.

Sasuke smirked.

Early that morning Sasuke and Naruto purposely slept in late waiting for their sensei to wake up, after Kakashi had woken up, showered, and dressed Sasuke and Naruto were getting more and more irritated waiting for the time when Kakashi would exit the door sealing his own fate.

The jounin stretched and went over to the door, both genin peered out of the corner of their eyes holding back their snickers, that is until "Kakashi-sensei!"

'_SAKURA!'_

Both thought, shooting up they went to stop the girl but it was too late, she opened the door before getting hit by a greenish-brown sticky fowl smelling substance, immediately afterwards another bucket spilled and fish guts spilled out and hit her dead on. She stumbled back

"Don't Sakura!" Both Naruto and Sasuke called but again they were too late as mounds of feathers came down on her. She looked just about ready to cry before a sticky golden substance oozed out of another bucket onto her head, before slowly traveling down her body turning the once white feathers yellow.

All in all she looked like a very big chicken who had rolled around in shit before jumping into a river of dead fish….and smelt like it too. Sasuke and Naruto although remorseful couldn't keep in their laughter, they gasped for air while Kakashi stood their sending sympathetic looks towards the girl before turning towards his other students and giving them stern looks.

"You two outside NOW" Naruto and Sasuke immediately stopped their laughter and bowed their head in shame, picking themselves off of the floor they made their way out the door. Bending down so he was eye level with Sakura, Kakashi said

"I'll go get tsunami so we can clean you up 'kay?" Sakura nodded meekly tears still streaming down her face. Then he added in a small whisper "Then after that we'll get them back" Before exiting the room leaving a confused Sakura behind, it was only a few moments later that she gave a sly smile.

* * *

Meanwhile outside Naruto and Sasuke stood next to each other waiting for their punishment from the jounin in front of them.

"You guys are in so much trouble"

* * *

**And done! So what did you think of my latest chapter? It's the longest I've written…well I think it is.**

**Next time find out what Naruto and Sasuke's punishment is, and what's this about Sakura's revenge? And what ever did happen to Itachi? **

**I'll try and get the next chapter out asap!**

**Review!****Shika XD**

* * *

Naruto: Hell's way of thanks

1. Haku dies Zabuza returns - 3

2. Zabuza dies Haku returns - 1

3. Both die - 1

4. Both return - 20

5. Both live but don't return - 2

6.

Both live but return later on into the story – 6

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

**Dislaimer: I do not own Naruto! Or any of the other Characters**

**Hello everyone, I am so sorry I was late to update this chapter, it's scary how school can take over your life. Anyway hopefully I'll get the next chapter out soon.**

**For now Enjoy!**

* * *

A young pink haired female lay sitting on a veranda of a relatively large house, watching two young yet handsome males pulling weeds under the glaring sun, sweat gleaming in the sun over their bare backs; the pink haired girl was sitting idly with a content smile on her face, fiddling with a straw in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other. Sasuke and Naruto grumbled as they pulled the weeds out, this was just like doing D-ranked missions all over again. Damn Sakura and her feelings, why did she have to have emotions anyway? It's not like it would change anything in her if she didn't…

Naruto paused his thoughts as he pictured a female Sai, shuddering he went back to pulling out weeds, never mind. The blond was pulled out of his thoughts by his raven haired teammate,

"This is all your fault" He sulked, although he would never admit he was sulking, really what kind of a Uchiha would he be if he sulked?

"My fault?! How is this, my fault? I didn't ask Sakura to ruin the prank….although it was pretty funny"

Sasuke nodded in agreement "You're right…..this is all Sakura's fault"

"Yeah, look at her sitting over there, mocking us"

"Yeah…"

"…"

"…Let's kill her…"

"…"

"…"

"...okay!"

"What are you two doing?" Sasuke and Naruto jumped a mile from fright, swiveling on the spot, they came face to face with a suspicious looking Kakashi.

"Nothing! We weren't plotting a pink haired girl's death!" Naruto exclaimed

"Not at all! You can't prove anything!" Sasuke cried out right after the bundle of sunshine.

Kakashi sweatdropped "Right…"

A heavy silence was brought upon the three shinobi "…anyway, you guys are free to go" the Cyclops continued, his nose already buried into his little orange novel. Both males turned to look at Kakashi in surprise

"What…that's it, that's all we had to do?" Naruto asked a little confused, he thought Sakura would have surely used this to her advantage to get back at Naruto for all he had done (well what she thought he did). Kakashi shrugged, still not looking up from his book as he flipped the page,

"That's what I said, but she went on skipping into the house giggling about something that sounded like 'shirtless, hot, sweaty, boys in the sun and a ton of pictures to sell on e-bay'" The jounin explained as he giggled into his novel, both Sasuke and Naruto paled considerably not noticing Kakashi already walking back to the house. Shocked out of their stupor Naruto and Sasuke ran after Kakashi pleading and threatening him to tell them where Sakura was, the scarecrow laughed off their cries of help as he entered the house.

Sasuke and Naruto were left standing on the veranda of their client's house, a soft breeze blowing through them as they stared at the shut door.

"Can we kill her now?" Sasuke asked in a monotone.

Naruto paused before answering "…Yeah"

Both disappeared from sight leaving only the trailing wind behind.

* * *

Of course when they had said kill they only meant socially and emotionally, they would never hurt a comrade physically. Yes Sakura was in for one hell of a ride when she got back to Konoha, of course she would never know until the last second, the poor girl would never know what hit her until it was too late.

Sasuke and Naruto had just finished planning their revenge before Kakashi walked into the room, both genin actions stopped, their eye's focused in the silver haired Cyclops who had just entered the room and now felt extremely uncomfortable at being examined so closely. Clearing his throat he said in a low (uncomfortable) voice "Uh…you two have first watch tomorrow at the bridge…I'll go now"

Walking out of the room, he turned to see Sasuke and Naruto still staring at him intensely, closing the door with a quiet click he stood on the other side not quite sure what to do with himself before he went down stairs to read some more of his little orange novel. Meanwhile back inside their room Naruto and Sasuke were already in tears laughing at their sensei's awkwardness, somewhat recovering from his hysterical state the blond wiped a tear from his eye and gazed down at his teammate before asking "Should we have pity on him and not send him to hospital for a mental checkup? Well presuming that there is such a thing" He added the last comment quietly through bouts of laughter.

Sasuke regarded the other teen quietly before shaking his head "Nah, it's more fun this way" Naruto's face split into a mischievous grin laying back down next to his teammate he said "You know if this keeps up, you'll be my new partner in crime in no time"

The raven turned his head, surprise dancing in his features, before smirking and holding out his hand, Naruto looked at it blankly before his face burst into a grin once more as Sasuke said these few words

"It'll be a pleasure doing business with you"

Taking the others hand Naruto shook it firmly

"But…"

Naruto halted his actions "You still need to teach me water walking first" Naruto howled in laughter at the scowling Uchiha sitting next to him.

* * *

Later that night Naruto lay gazing at ceiling, the house was peaceful and silent, all in a deep slumber. Thinking back on the past few days Naruto smiled, promising himself that this time would be different, way different, this time no one would get hurt, this time no one would die, because this time he knew what to expect, this time he will save everyone from their expected fates. Naruto vowed silently his fist clenched in front of his face, suddenly he stopped as a chakra signal disrupted the cool air, but as quickly as it had come it disappeared again.

Slowly, as to not wake his comrades, he lifted himself from his futon and glanced out of the window behind him. The same chakra signal disrupted the flow of the night's air, immediately on his feet Naruto silently and as quickly as possible was full clothed and armed, he made his way towards the window, only to be held back by a vice grip on his arm. Spinning on the balls of his feet he aimed a good punch to the face of his captor, skillfully dodging the punch Kakashi calmed his student down before anything major happened.

Surprised Naruto cursed himself, how had Kakashi woken up he made sure to be quiet. As if reading his mind Kakashi gave his student a blatant look "I'm an ex-ANBU captain, Naruto" He whispered offended, Naruto sweatdropped apologizing, unconsciously noting the Cyclops was fully dressed and armed himself _'but then again, he's always on guard'_ Naruto told himself as he suddenly remembered the future nights he would spend with his sensei away on missions (A/N: That made no sense whatsoever). Kakashi's features suddenly tightened, indicating he was serious

"Where are you off to in the middle of the night with all of that?" He asked pointing to the armory and heavy explosives the young blond held, but before he could reply another chakra signal was distributed into the night. The silver haired jounin froze and gave a curious glance towards his student who glanced anxiously towards the window, Kakashi spun the boy around

"What's going on?" He voice was firm and crisp leaving no room for arguments, Naruto sighed "I'll explain later, follow if you must, but by no means are you to interfere in this" Naruto hissed in urgency as another signal was given off. Kakashi nodded and followed Naruto as he disappeared out of the window, trailing his student by a few good meters away. Entering the forest they traveled further into the thickening foliage, Naruto slowed his pace before coming to a complete stop and jumping down from the tree tops, Kakashi followed his student and blanched as he saw who was responsible for the chakra signals.

"Itachi, Zabuza and the fake hunter-nin?!! Naruto what the hell is going on?!"

The three missing-nin surveyed the Cyclops before turning and aiming their confusion at the blond who was now pinching his nose at the predicament he had in front of him. "Kakashi-sensei I've told you of Itachi before have I not?" he asked calmly, Kakashi turned to his student questioningly before a clog in his mind seemed to click back into place as he remembered Naruto briefly telling about Itachi's innocence during his detailed explanation of how he was from the future. Kakahsi nodded before loosening up little, although he was keeping a rather watchful eye on Itachi, who seemed not to notice and if he did he did not let it show.

"Alright, what about the other two?" Kakshi asked indicating Zabuza and Haku, Naruto sighed, turning towards the three missing-nin, the raven, Haku and Zabuza all waited for an explanation, "Maybe you should all take a seat, this is a long story" Itachi raised a brow, Kakashi was already sitting knowing what to expect, the older Uchiha followed his lead and seated himself on the ground in front of the small blond. Zabuza said he would prefer to stand while Haku took his place under the males feet. Naruto sighed again, this was going to be a long night.

* * *

A heavy silence loomed over the five shinobi, all deep in thought before Zabuza broke the silence

"So let me get this straight, you're from the future, right?"

Naruto nodded

"And you came back thanks to Kyuubi, the demon that was sealed inside of you when you were born by your Yondaime Hokage, who also happens to be your father, to save the village." Haku continued

"The ultimate reason you came back was to stop the destruction that Konoha had fallen into by the hands of my foolish little brother and his pink haired fan-girl?" Itachi asked before thinking again and bluntly asking in disbelief "Does he really kill me?"

"Yeah, I was surprised when I found out too" Naruto answered, Kakashi, Zabuza and Haku sweatdropped at the lack of normality of the conversation. Kakashi suddenly scratched the back of his head bashfully turning to Haku "Sorry, about the whole killing thing" Haku looked confused for a moment before waving his arms in front of him

"No, no it wasn't your fault at all, I was the one who jumped in front of Zabuza-sama" Kakashi insisted that it was his fault and Haku kept reassuring him that it wasn't laughing nervously. Itachi and Zabuza were in a deep discussion and heated arguement about whose death was more honorable, all the while Naruto was on the sidelines watching the scene unfold with a sweatdrop planted on his head

"**This turned out rather well"**

Naruto nodded mentally, before realizing "Kyuubi?!" Everyone's actions immediately halted all weapons drawn out and instantly on guard searching for the demon, but then looked at Naruto confused, said blond was covering his mouth with one hand and scratching his head sheepishly with the other, laughing nervously he waved all of them off "Ahaha…gomen, my mistake" Itachi seemed to make the connection first "You can talk to the demon?"

Naruto laughed nervously again "pshh, no" he scoffed "What would make you think, like…that" Naruto stopped halfway through his denial as he realized that everyone had already found out and that denying it would not help them think otherwise "Yeah, I can talk to him" Kakashi sighed "Is their anything else I don't know?" He asked crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently, Naruto pouted he looked away as he started tugging and fiddling with his shirt under Kakashi's intense glare. The three missing-nin watched the scene with amusement "Zabu-kun and Haku-chan.." Itachi and Kakashi held back an amused smile, Zabuza settled for a glare at the nickname while Haku blushed "I made a deal with them that they would come back to Konoha with us and be re-instated as full fledge ninja's" the blond said innocently as he pointed at the pair Kakashi blanched again. The mist nin and his companion chuckled at the blonds innocence and Kakashi's reaction

"And so will Ita-chan" the blond continued, Itachi, (ignoring the new nick name which Zabuza took it upon himself to burst out laughing at it while Haku settled for a giggle), looked at the blond in shock, he hadn't heard about this. Kakashi however did not find anything amusing "Naruto…" His voice halted any if not all actions and noise that echoed around the forest, Naruto flinched under his gaze tightening his hold on his shirt "When exactly were you planning to tell me this?" Naruto flinched again at the harshness of his voice.

Naruto not trusting his voice, looked away from Kakashi, "Naruto, you know we can't" All three missing-nin turned to Kakashi, Haku flinched as he remembered the deal sneaking a worried glance at the blond and then at his master. "But Kaka-chan!" Naruto protested , but immediately backed down after seeing Kakashi's expression (A/N: just a little hint for all the slow people out there, his expression isn't a happy one).

Sighing the blond sat on the floor, "I can make it happen..." He said quietly, yet it was heard so clearly in the forest that was now dead silent. "I can have them reinstated, well in there case" He pointed at Zabuza and Haku "Instated, I have a few connections and I can pull a few strings…I can make it happen Kakashi…just…trust me, please?" Naruto let his azure eyes wander to the Silver haired Cyclops, who in turn sighed "Why did I pass this team again?" He asked Naruto, who gave him a grin, "Because you know you can't live without you're cute but precious students" he replied simply.

Kakashi scoffed, Haku felt Zabuza's tense body loosen up next to him, he also found himself letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Itachi let a rare but small smile grace his features at the thought of returning home. "But of course Itachi won't be able to return until next year and, Zabuza and Haku must be under the highest form of henge to enter the village" Naruto said simply. Everyone stopped and stared at Naruto who was fidgeting awkwardly with the hem of his shirt looking anywhere but the four before him.

Haku sighed "What exactly are you planning Uzama-"

"Naruto, just Naruto"

"Naruto-kun, what are you planning?" Haku asked quietly, Naruto sighed "To put it simply, I'm planning to put together a secret operative team of high class ninja's, which will help me keep an eye on things outside Konoha and within it, as well as go on the occasional missions here and there" Naruto said, and adding casually "With the Hokage's permission of course" everyone's jaws dropped, well except for Itachi but you could see the disbelief in his eyes, at the ridiculous idea. Naruto chuckled at their reactions "It's not as ridiculous as it sounds…" Naruto said but no one responded.

The blond sighed "well it's a good thing you all trust me, other wise we'd be in big trouble" Naruto said with a laugh. Four out of five blanched, Naruto stopped chuckling "You guys do trust me…don't you?" Again no one responded "Guys…" Naruto called out meekly, inside Naruto's mind Kyuubi howled with laughter. Naruto took it upon himself to curl into a ball near a tree with anime tears running down his cheeks and heavy depression lines hovering above him, the blond cried about people not trusting him.

Haku rushed to the boys side trying to calm him down, a sweatdrop planted on his head, the other three had there backs turned from the scene discussing why they wouldn't trust the boy.

* * *

As soon as Naruto's head hit the pillow he fell into a deep sleep, Kakashi watched the boy with a fond smile on his face, in the end Naruto had some how once again managed to get them all to trust him with what he was proposing to do. Shaking himself out of his thoughts Kakashi found himself collapsing onto his pillow, not realizing how tired he had actually been, he found himself already in a deep slumber thinking about the surprises tomorrow will bring.

* * *

It seemed as soon as he fell asleep he was woken up again by a loud banging at his door "Kaka-sensei! Naruto! Sasuke-kun! Tazuna-san said he'll meet you at the bridge!" Sakura's voice called from the hallway, Kakashi groaned, he heard Naruto and Sasuke groan along with him. He lifted his sleepy head from his pillow and yawned before scratching his head and moving towards the bathroom. Meanwhile Naruto and Sasuke were both still groaning about the sun being too bright and Sakura being too cheerful so early in the morning.

This went on until Kakashi exited the bathroom completely refreshed, and Naruto got up from his futon and entered the bathroom, locking the door behind him he quickly brushed his teeth and showered, exiting the shower he pulled the towel around his waist, before dully noting that he had not taken any clothes in with him. Sighing he made sure the towel around his waist would not fall off before exiting the bathroom, and made his way towards his cloak, which had all his sealing scrolls.

Sasuke and Kakashi raised a brow at Naruto's appearance, the blond offered a short "Forgot my cloths" as an explanation, which the raven sleepily accepted while the scarecrow went back to whatever he was doing. Gathering his clothes Naruto made to stand up but was pushed back to the floor as Sasuke, who was accidentally knocked down by Kakashi, landed on top of him. Sasuke had landed on his hands and knees, both hands on either side of the blonds head, while his left leg was placed in between Naruto's legs and his right leg just brushing the blonds left leg, while Naruto's other leg was bent so that the sole of his foot was flat on the ground his knee was brushing the younger Uchiha's side.

All three males froze, Naruto and Sasuke's lips were just centimeters away from each other, not to mention the fact that Naruto was completely and utterly naked under the towel, which wasn't doing a very good job of covering him right now. Everything was silent before Naruto groaned "Damn it Sasuke I know I'm attractive but couldn't you wait until after Kakashi was out of the room? Or were you waiting for a threesome?" Sasuke blushed crimson before smashing Naruto's head through the floor, getting up and stomping off into the bathroom.

Releasing his head from the floor Naruto turned around to hear and see the sight of Kakashi on the floor laughing. Naruto gave the Cyclops a grin before forgetting about shame and drying himself off, as well as dressing himself right in front of his jounin sensei, although Kakashi didn't seem to mind, let alone notice. Once fully dressed Naruto turned to face Kakashi with a grin on his face "So, what are we doing today?"

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**And CUT! =D another chapter done, I don't know if you'll like it but please review and let me know.**

**Also polls are now closed! Here are the results =D**

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**Haku dies Zabuza returns - 3**

**Zabuza dies Haku returns - 1**

**Both die - 1**

**Both return - 24**

**Both live but don't return - 2**

**Both live but return later on into the story – 7**

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**Hope you got what you wanted…if not…well then too bad I guess =.= lol until next time**

**Once again Review!**

**Shika XD**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto…such a depressing thought**

**Hey people sorry I didn't update in a while, but have no fear this fic is still ongoing!!**

**Lol read and Enjoy!

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**

The worksite was buzzing with activity and full of life, a series of orders were shouted at the employees over all the clatter and clamor of the construction happening in the surroundings. Two males stood side by side together on the far side of the incomplete bridge, the male on the right had his hands folded behind his wild golden hair, he looked up at the sky watching the clouds drifting by. While the male on the left had his arms folded across his chest watching the employee's scrambling around the bridge hurrying to get to their destinations, rushing to get the job done.

Sasuke had a passive expression fixed into his features, using all his strength and focus on ignoring the blond next to him, said blond had noticed the older boys odd behavior and got curious, then annoyed this had been going on since they had left the house and Naruto was getting frustrated. Tilting his head he leaned down a bit to get a better look at the ravens face, noticing the action Sasuke turned away completely, giving Naruto a full view of his back. A vein popped on the blonds head his brow twitched uncontrollably as he continued to stare at Sasuke's back

"What's wrong with you?! You've been like this since we left Tazuna's house"

The older male didn't so much as twitch, let alone acknowledge his existence, Naruto fumed as another vein popped into place next to the first one, the blond had, had enough, he made to grab the others shoulder in order to make the boy face him, but the raven had beaten him too it. Naruto suddenly found himself breaking out a sweat as he gazed into Sasuke's glare, which would freeze even the core of the earth. Yes, if looks could kill Naruto would already have been beaten, left for dead then brought back to life only to be cloned have his clones beaten and then killed along with himself and the being left to rot below the seven levels of hell where even the bravest of demons would not dare venture.

Letting go of Sasuke's shoulder like touching him had burned through his hand, he put both hands out before him using them to act as a shield between himself and the glaring…thing he was facing. Backing away ever so slowly he said "Uhm…L-Le-Leaf. Shoulder. Take. Off…Uhm….I'll go over there now" Naruto rushed over towards the other side of the bridge, leaning over the rail he gasped searching for the breath that was knocked out of him from Sasuke's killing intent.

Glancing back at the teen he found his team mate engulfed in flames of fury the sheer killer intent rolling off of him in waves was enough to set the employee's in a state of frenzy. Some scampered away from the teen others shook struggling to breath trying to get away from the crazed teen, while others stood back and watched in awe at the young genin.

'_What is with him?! It's like it's that time of the month already…Oh My GOD! Sasuke's a PMSing girl that gets it twice as hard as normal girls!!"_

"**Are you really that stupid? And here I thought you had grown that thing you call a brain….it seems I was mistaken"** Naruto jumped at the familiar sound of the demons voice, he chuckled nervously at the glaring raven who gave him a curious glance before reverting back to trying to glare a hole through his head.

'_What do you mean? What did I do?'_

Kyuubi chuckled before continuing **"I love it how you instantly assume that you have done something wrong, and what I mean is that the Uchiha doesn't appreciate what's happened between you and him this morning"**

Chibi Naruto stood before the beast and its cage, a blank and confused expression on his face, the fox demon fought down the urge to hit his forehead with his paw.

'_What happened this morning?'_ Not being able to stop himself Kyuubi smacked his forehead, glancing down at the oblivious young male before him before sending him into his recent memory

* * *

(Flashback no Jutsu!)

_Naruto and Sasuke's lips were just centimeters away from each other, not to mention the fact that Naruto was completely and utterly naked under the towel, which wasn't doing a very good job of covering him right now. Everything was silent before Naruto groaned _

"_Damn it Sasuke I know I'm attractive but couldn't you wait until after Kakashi was out of the room? Or were you waiting for a threesome?" _

_Sasuke blushed crimson before smashing Naruto's head through the floor, getting up and stomping off into the bathroom._

(End Flashback no Jutsu!)

* * *

'_Oh you can't be serious, he's getting worked up over something as little as this….I mean I would understand if Sakura had reacted this way …but Sasuke?! I'm disappointed, I for one thought he would be better then this'_

"**Kit, look at this from his perspective, not only did you humiliate him in front of his Jounin sensei and make him blush, most likely humiliating him further, but you also have to take into account that the Uchiha had the pride and ego is thrice the size of the Hokage monument. And for you to go and do something like this is one thing that a person brought up believing in all the Uchiha beliefs and learning there customs can not tolerate."**

Naruto mulled over the foxes words, slowly he nodded his head understanding,

'_So then…what should I do?'_

Kyuubi gave him a blunt look** "How the hell should I know?" **Naruto gawked at the demon before him, the blond chibi rose to his feet pointing at Kyuubi as he shouted

'_What do you mean you don't know!? Aren't you helping me?!'_ Kyuubi howled and roared in laughter, his voice echoing away into the darkness. However the deep rumbles ceased, as the fox saw the seriousness on the blond's features, his expression softened

"**You are serious"**

Naruto nodded

"**Well in that case"** Kyuubi rolled on the floor of the cavern howling in laughter harder then before, beating his paw on the ground, causing water to wash over chibi Naruto, whose brow twitched, popping a vein he gritted his teeth and shouted

"STUPID MUTATED RABBIT!"

Silence lingered in the atmosphere of the construction site, all eyes turned and landed on the poor blond boy who was blushing crimson at his own stupidity a breeze blew by as the silence continued. Inside his cave kyuubi rolled howling and gasping for breath trying to keep his gut from bursting because of all the laughter, mentally cursing the fox with every swear he knew Naruto cleared his throat and laughed nervously "Uhm..I-I mean…I think it's time for lunch?" Sasuke and Tazuna sweatdropped at the obvious cover-up

"Tch, that idiot no one would fall for that" Sasuke muttered crossing his arms in front of his chest, Tazuna nodded in agreement, but stopped mid-way as he saw his workers following the young blond towards a resting area on the bridge all the while they took out their lunches. Both Sasuke and Tazuna face vaulted, regaining their composure the raven turned to the older man and said bluntly

"You're workers are a herd of idiots"

"What did I ever do to deserve thi-" Tazuna's eyes widened before he turned away with a small blush on his features he moved his hand in font of his mouth clearing his throat

"never mind"

Sasuke raised a brow a small sweat-drop on the back of his head, sighing he made his way over to his blond teammate.

Meanwhile Naruto congratulated himself on his awesome cover-up story, not only did he get out of an extremely uncomfortable situation but he also got to eat lunch earlier too! Yeah, he was a true genius

"Hey genius, why not tell me what you were trying to cover up?"

Freezing, Naruto broke out a sweat as the recognizable voice of a cocky raven floated to the side of his ears, turning ever so slowly he faced the familiar features of his black haired teammate "eh? What do you mean Sasuke?"

"'…Not only did I get out of a extremely uncomfortable situation I also got a free lunch out of it, I'm a genius!' is what you just said, so what were you trying to cover up?" Sasuke asked crossing his arms.

'_Oh for fucks sake! Didn't I already get out of the habit of speaking my thoughts?!'_

"Apparently not dobe, start talking"

"Fucking bullocks"

Glancing at his teammate one more time he ran through every possible excuse that didn't lead to a dead end. Sighing he slumped in defeat as his tiny brain could not capture an excuse he could have used, composing himself he folded his arms across his chest and looked directly into Sasuke's onyx eyes

"Sasuke, what I am about to tell you, you must not breath word to for the rest of your days until I say otherwise" his facial expression serious calm, composed, one of authority. And definitely a facial expression that caught Sasuke's attention, giving Naruto a wary look he nodded firmly. Naruto only sighed once more before looking at Sasuke and then his face dropped into a mixture of horror and disbelief he shouted while pointing behind the raven

"Oh my god! It's Itachi!!"

Needless to say Sasuke turned so fast he could have gotten whiplash, his eye witched however when he saw an empty space, turning face his teammate his facial expression turned to one of rage as he saw a little golden blur in the horizon. Swearing death upon his teammate he went back to guarding the bridge.

* * *

Now when Naruto cried out Itachi's name he wasn't lying entirely, the older raven was in the area just not behind Sasuke, and it was towards Itachi's exact location that he was currently heading. Zooming past the tree's he jumped on the heavily hooded figure before him and engulfed him into a bear hug

"ITA-CHAN!"

The cheerful blond suddenly found a kunai to his throat in mere milliseconds "Naruto-kun, I'm forever grateful to what you've done for me so far, however, please refrain from ever doing that again otherwise I will have your head as a decoration for my wall"

Naruto glanced blankly at the kunai before looking at Itachi and back again, the blonds face fell into one that would have looked like a toddler being deprived of is favorite toy. He sent the look straight at Itachi, who kept his cool, he had enough practice with his little brother, ignoring this look was like a second nature to him still. Naruto noticing this pouted before releasing the older male

"Naw, you're no fun Ita-chan"

The Uchiha snorted, before putting away the kunai, Naruto seated himself under the shade of a nearby tree he folded his hands behind his head and turned expectantly at Itachi. "So what have you called me out for?"

Itachi considered the blond, his face giving away nothing his eyes however gave away his uncertainty. The genin raised a brow,

"Akatsuki is making its move to infiltrate all Jinchuriki"

A silence rang out throughout the forest, Naruto's face upturned into a frown, sitting up straight he linked his hands in front of his face resting his elbows on top of his crossed legs. "They're moving earlier then expected" Itachi only nodded stiffly, watching the blond with interest. Shaking himself out of his trance, Naruto shot a grin at Itachi

"I've still got time, plus we got you on our side right now, so it won't be as much a problem as in the original timeline."

"No"

Naruto turned confused "eh?"

"I have not been assigned to go after the Kyuubi no Yoko Jinchuriki, Deidara and Sasori will be going after you"

"Eh?"

"Kisame and I have been assigned to go after the Ichibi no Shukaku Jinchuriki"

"Eh?!!"

Itachi nodded at Naruto's confused state, he himself was confused. Naruto rummaged his thoughts trying to think up a solution to this, yet stopped mid-way, this was actually turning out better then planned

"Keep it that way"

Itachi turned more confused then ever "What?"

"Keep hunting Shukaku, just don't hurt or capture him, I'll also be able to keep the other Jinchuriki away from the rest of the Akatsuki members. I'll be able to take care of Sasori and Deidara" Naruto chuckled "I'll show them the art of pranks, those two won't know what hit them"

Itachi sweatdropped as he watched Naruto laughing at his own little fantasies, clearing his throat he caught the blonds attention who stopped and stared blankly

"What are you still here for? Hurry up and skedaddle I'm a busy person you know"

Itachi sweatdropped again, finding it quite ironic that he, the man that massacred one of the most prestigious clans in the shinobi world in less then one night, was taking orders from a genin. Sighing he pondered what happened to the world when the little gold of sunshine entered the world, the older raven nodded before turning to head off

"Wait! I've been meaning to ask you something"

Itachi turned waiting questioningly and face vaulted at the sight of the blond who lifted rocks, searched behind and uprooted trees, looking through bushes, all the while asking "Ita-chan, Where is shark-chan?" Itachi was trying to recompose himself after he face vaulted. Glancing towards the blond who was still searching he shook his head and said in an utterly defeated tone "He's five miles from here under the influence of Tsukuyomi, although it's wearing off and taking its toll on my body, I need to go"

Naruto nodded, understanding, this could prove to be a problem in the future, if Akatsuki caught onto Itachi's overuse of his Mangekyo Sharingan then they would start to get suspicious and a suspicious powerful underground missing-nin organization poking around into his business was the last thing he needed. He was going to have to find a solution for this problem, he gave one last nod and goodbye to Itachi before he made his way towards Tazuna's house. His shift wasn't over but if Akatsuki was moving faster then he would need to be prepared for any other changes in the time-line.

Sakura was going to get one hell of a training session, he wasn't letting her go until she mastered everything he had planned for her, that way when he got back to Konoha, she would have already mastered the basics and more, so all he would have to do is get someone to push her into everything else. Then it was straight onto Sasuke and water walking after that he was going to hand him over to the scarecrow and make sure that he drills him to the ground, pride or no pride. It was finally time to get serious. But first, he really needed to prank someone, and he could see a silver lining in the distance.

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**How was it? Good? No good? Shit? "OMG THAT WAS THE MOST IDIOTIC THING I"VE READ IN YEARS!"? **

**review and let me know =D**

**Shika XD**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto, wish I did but I don't soo yeah…get over it.**

**Hello everyone! I'm back!! Sorry for being away for a while, a lot of shit happened and I wasn't able to write. Anyway here's the next chapter **

**Enjoy!

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Naruto lay deep in thought, contrary to what he had told Itachi, this was going to be troublesome, while he could ensure Gaara's safety he would need a new strategy now that Deidara and Sasori were going after him. He would need to know when they would strike, defenses, attack plans, battle moves, he needed information and fast, it was a good thing he knew exactly who to go to for it.

Smirking the blond took out a scroll, scribbled a quick note he preformed a few hand seals and slammed his had down onto the parchment before sealing it and summoned a clone to take it to his sensei. When the clone had taken off Nartuo, smiling, stood up, stretched out the kinks in his arms and shoulders, patted off the dust from his pants and moved on towards the far side of the village.

In a second he disappeared from view and was exiting the village and was on his way towards Kusagakure, where Orochimaru was rumored to be sighted. With a malicious smirk fixated on his features Naruto started humming a random tune not being able to contain his excitement for what he had planned for the next few days of when he found the snake Sannin.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

Perverted giggle.

Glance at training progress.

Read R-rated dreams.

Perverted giggle.

This was, the continuous cycle Kakashi had conducted for this afternoon while training Sakura. Naruto had already taught her of the chakra control exercises, from what he had heard from the blond boy she completed them excellently, but then dully noted that it was because of the puny chakra reserves she had. Naruto had ordered him to train the strawberry-blond and raise her chakra reserves. Kakashi scoffed at the thought, how did a genin get away with ordering a ex-ANBU captain, now turned jounin?

Oh, right, because said genin was really a 25 year old Hokage from the future.

'_Fuck my life; I'm too old for this shit'_

The silver haired jounin was brought out of his self-pity by the reason, and cause, of said self-pity. Lifting his head from the little orange novel in his hand, he let his gaze wonder over to the hyperactive blonde-haired person, grinning in front of him, waiting….

…Why was he waiting?

It was only a few seconds later that the ex-ANBU captain noticed the scroll in the boys outstretched hands. Raising his visible brow he carefully took the scroll from the boy and opened the parchment to read its contents only to be sprayed by a jet of water that came gushing out of the scroll. The water slowed before stopping completely, droplets of water dripped from the edge of the scroll, Kakashi blinked still grasping the parchment. His hair now flopped onto his features, drenched was his mask and forehead protector, the silver Cyclops glared at the laughing blob that was the blond.

Sakura who had noticed what was happening promptly burst into fits of laughter gasping out how her sensei could be as stupid as to fall for something so simple. Holding back a growl his visible eye twitched, barking orders at Sakura to get on with her training, the girl yelped before complying. Kakashi turned back to the blond male only to find him gone and replaced by a puff of smoke,

'_Kagebushin…'_

Sighing he glanced down at the sheet of paper, he blinked in surprise to find that their was writing on it

_Kaka-chan, I'm disappointed, you're making pranking you too easy! You're getting old Cyclops!_

_Anyway, getting back to business, guess who won't be around for a couple of days? Come on guess, here's a clue, we both know him and he's your most favorite student in the whole wide world!_

_(You dare say Sasuke and I'll beat you into the middle of next week)_

_That's right! It's me!!_

_As for where and why I am going away, well I can't tell you that in case this message get infiltrated._

_So see you when I see you!_

_KJ-9T__1 _**(1)**

Kakashi's eye twitched again, Cyclops?! Who did his brat think he was, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, he'll think of a punishment later. Right now he needed to find out what the gaki thought he was doing going off on his own, Kakashi sighed unsure of where to go from here. Turning back to glance at Sakura's training progress he blinked when he saw ….nothing?

Alarmed Kakashi turned wildly looking for the pink haired ninja, he froze when he heard a female clearing her throat from behind him. Slowly as he dared he turned to face his pink haired student, he blinked again as he noticed it was only a bushin, he blinked two more times when he found her waiting patiently for him to take a scroll she had, he assumed been holding out to him for a while. Hesitantly taking the scroll Kakashi was in full battle mode, not taking another chance after what happened with Naruto's scroll. He quickly preformed a jutsu wiping any pranks which may have been in the scroll. However upon finding nothing Kakashi relaxed visibly and gave a one eyed smile, really he was being paranoid as to even suspect Sakura, he thought as he opened the scroll and read the contents.

_Dear Sensei_

_Sorry for not sticking around but you wouldn't reply when I called you, I finished the exercise just fine. I'll be waiting for my next lesson (insert smiley face)._

_Your Favorite Student _

_黒い桜の花 _**(2)**

Kakashi gave another one eyed smile at the innocence of his female student, he blinked as he realized there was more

_P.s. You let your guard down, I'm disappointed in you sensei I even gave you a clue that I'm not so innocent!_

Kakashi blanched as a wave of itching powder smacked right onto his face and mask. Growling Kakashi swore to get revenge on his students.

* * *

Meanwhile in Tazuna's backyard on top of the lake was Sasuke. He had taken Naruto's advice and summoned a bushin to spar with him on the surface of the water, like he had seen Kakashi do with Zabuza. So far he could keep a constant flow of chakra for little over fifteen minutes while sparring and while his sensei said that was a great achievement he knew he could do better and was still training.

His thoughts wondered over to the other day when he saw one of Naruto's clones train Sakura making her harness the super strength she had and put it into combat. Curiosity getting the better of him he asked Naruto why he taught Sakura that strength and not him.

Flashback no Jutsu:

_Naruto looked at Sasuke mildly surprised at the question, before his surprise melted into a grin and stated simply_

"_Because Sasuke-teme, that style doesn't suit you, although you would be able to harness the technique in time, you will not be able to master it on the same level that Sakura can. It takes immense amounts of chakra control to be able to master that technique and while you have excellent control Sakura's control is still better due to her low chakra reserves making her chakra output easier to control and more sufficient for this particular style. _

_Sasuke mulled the thought over a little before nodding still looking unconvinced, seeing this the blond continued._

"_Besides loud and destructive isn't your style, you're fast and silent, It's a useful talent to improve as most assassins look to be quick and silent. So working to improve your stealth would be something you should do. And if you do take this advice you can also look for a fighting style with …grace I guess you would say. _

_For example using the Katana, while Kakashi sensei isn't skilled in that art you could always ask to be introduced to one who is, I think there are a few samurai's in Konoha who could take you on as an apprentice. That is if you want to. Anyway..Ah! we're going to be late to meet up with Kakashi-sensei and Sakura! Come on teme!"_

_Naruto exclaimed as he ran towards their meeting area, Sasuke followed all the while thinking back on the new information he had just processed. Unknown to him, Naruto snickered his plan going smoothly, although he was still surprised that Sasuke had been the one to approach him directly this time. Aw well better for him._

End Flashback no jutsu.

Sasuke dodged a punch from his clone before a thought crossed his mind '_how does the dobe know all this?'_ before he lost his concentration and plunged into the icy lake. Surfacing a tick appeared on top of his head in irritation while his clone above him smirked in triumph. The tick grew bigger, are clones even able to contain personalities? Whatever and he dispersed the clone, before exiting the lake and moving towards the house for a shower.

When he exited the shower he met Sakura who had a pleased expression on her face, lifting a brow at her she simply went around happily helping Tsunami prepare dinner. Putting his curiosity towards the back of his mind he collected a scroll from his room and sat on an armchair across from where Tazuna was studying the blueprints of the bridge. Inari was sitting in his grandfather's lap listening to the mans mummers and mumbles to himself.

It was little under an hour before Kakashi entered the house in a foul mood glaring at an innocent looking Sakura and announced that Naruto would be away for a week. Sasuke and Sakura looked up from what they were doing and asked simultaneously

"Why?"

Kakashi looked at his two students immediately noticing the differences from when they first introduced themselves on the roof top all those months ago. Sakura would have blushed at the mear thought of saying the same thing as Sasuke had let alone at the same time. While Sasuke…Sasuke wouldn't have spoken up in the first place, he wouldn't have shown even the slightest interest in his team mate.

Kakashi gave them both a one-eyed smile, they were growing up, probably from Naruto's training but no one else knew that. Kakashi answered them with a simple he had to take care of something personal while he was here, Hokage-sama had given him permission and warned me before hand."

Now the last part involving the Hokage was a complete lie, he honestly didn't know what Naruto was doing and only prayed he didn't get himself killed, he didn't want to fill out any more paperwork then necessary, it would be too troublesome. It seemed however that Sakura and Sasuke bought his lye and went back to what they were doing.

Kakashi blinked, what was it that simple? No questions; No complaints; No 'how come that baka is out on his own and I'm stuck in here?'

Kakashi scratched the back of his head, well it wasn't like he was going to complain, moving over to Tsunami he asked if there was anything she wanted him to do.

* * *

Under the cover of darkness, Naruto took solace in the forest surroundings and made camp. Building his tent and laying out his futon, that done he made five shadow clones, two to search the area for any potential enemies, another one to gather sticks and stone to make a camp fire, while the last two were to hunt for food.

While he waited for his shadow clones to either disperse or return Naruto busied himself and made a perimeter around the camp that would alert him immediately if anyone entered it. It was little under ten minutes before one of his clones came back with the materials for the fire, aligning the stones and piling the sticks on top of each other he got the fire started within seconds.

The rest of the night went on uneventfully and Naruto soon fell asleep in his camp. It wouldn't be until two days later that he would reach his destination and stumble upon Orochimaru's lair.

* * *

Kakashi snapped awake as he heard a rustle and a pulse of a familiar chakra signature from outside the house, carefully he peeked over at his still sleeping student and gathered the rest of his weapons before exiting the house. Making his way towards the chakra signature he caught sight of Zabuza and Haku, stopping in front of he turned his attention to a confused Haku who spoke up.

"Where's Naruto-kun?"

Kakashi gave a one-eyed smile "Saa, Naruto-kun had to take care of some personal matters he won't be here for another week unfortunately."

Haku looked a little downcast before nodding, Zabuza rolled his eyes at the boys antics and spoke to Kakashi "He's been rambling on and on about that blond, you'd think he had an infatuation with the boy"

Haku's eye's widened and his face turned crimson "Za-Zabuza-sama!" Kakashi simply chuckled "Saa, you wouldn't be the first one he's done that to Haku-san"

The silver haired jounin stated thinking back to the Hokage's grandson, Konahamaru. Zabuza lifted a brow while Haku's blush deepened, shaking his head Zabuza spoke up "Gatou is moving, he is planning on having us…" he pointed at himself and the young nin next to him "…attack the bridge at the end of this week."

Kakashi's features turned grim "That gives us four days"

Zabuza nodded before continuing "He plans on sending out two samurai to take the daughter hostage as well, I am unsure of what he plans to do with the boy"

Kakashi nodded accepting the new information and mulling over his thought before looking at Zabuza who was studying him and asked "What are your thoughts on raids?"

Zabuza gave the other jounin a malicious grin that promised pain, Kakashi returned the grin. Haku looked between the two jounin and slowly back away, '_this is bad…Naruto-kun hurry back!'

* * *

_

**Two Days Later (Time skip People!)

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Naruto could be found crawling along a dark vent looking for his target, after a few minutes he found him. The tall pasty skinned snake Sannin was sitting in his study, looking through a few assorted files. Smirking Naruto drew back the way he came and dropped into the corridor outside the mans office.

Taking a tag out of one of his pouches he stuck it onto the wall opposite the door and entered the vent once more. He hurriedly made his way back to his previous position above Orochimaru and then activated the seal.

A loud explosion sounded throughout the corridor Orochimaru shot up and exited the room out into the chaos of confused ninja's. Naruto as quick as the Yellow Flash himself entered the room and set up his trap, before hurriedly entering the vent once more. A few minutes later when the excitement died down Orochimaru came storming back in and sat back down all the while hissing curses of frustration about incompetent ninja's. And then the trap activated and globs of glue splattered all over the Sannins head before a bright rainbow coloured afro wig floated down on top of the glue, effectively sticking it to his head.

The Sannin was too shocked to register the soft 'click' of the digital camera Naruto had taken a picture with. The blond desperately held back his laughter in fear of being caught, calmly and still somewhat shocked the Sannin stood up setting off the other trap set in place and got hit with gallons of paint, one colour after another. When the assault finished Naruto took another couple of pictures and then Orochimaru did something Naruto would never have thought possible.

The bastard fainted.

Naruto looked on for a couple more seconds before going crazy and took a dozen pictures before collected every shred of evidence that even suggested that he had been there and exited the lair and ran back to his team. All the while he laughed and laughed and laughed.

* * *

Meanwhile back with Kakashi stood within the forest with Sakura and Sasuke helping them with their training. Sakura was once again trying to completely master her technique and was working on her ninjutsu at the same time while Sasuke asked Kakashi to help him improve his speed. Needless to say Kakashi not wanting to pass up a good opportunity worked Sasuke to the bone every day and slowly but surely he could see the boys efforts coming through.

The Jounin had informed the two genins of the raid to take place the next day and both immediately disagreed something that shocked Kakashi greatly, when he asked why they simply stated that they didn't feel they were ready.

Again, this took Kakashi aback, if the statement came from Sakura only then he would understand but it came from Sasuke as well. Kakashi simply smiled at both of them and told them he wouldn't have dared suggested it if he didn't think they were not ready. This seemed to calm them down if only a bit and nodded in acceptance. Sakura, however, was still a little wary.

Sasuke then asked about Naruto and if he would be back in time, Kakashi shook his head and said he wasn't sure. Sasuke again nodded before returning to the backyard to train.

Kakashi turned to his students in front of him a proud smile upon his features. They were thinking a little more like a team.

That night Tazuna's family and team 7 were all gathered around the table chatting and eating happily, until something caught Sakura's eye.

"Ne, Tsunami-san…" The woman turned her attention to Sakura and smiled "Why is that picture ripped?"

Tazuna who had been happily talking animatedly to Kakashi suddenly stopped upon Sakura's words, Tsunami's face fell and Inari suddenly stood up and ran out of the room. Everything was still and Sakura fund herself stumbling with her words apologizing for intruding, Tsunami simply shook her head and started explaining everything that had happened with Inari's father.

By the end of the explanation everyone was silent for the rest of the night and immediately went to bed after dinner.

* * *

Naruto sat in his camp watching Itachi who was sitting across from him. The older male had warned Naruto that Akatsuki was planning to move in on Gaara much earlier then expected.

"When are you expected to move?"

"Leader-sama has given Kisame and I two more days to move"

Naruto nodded "Is there anyway to delay the capture?"

Itachi looked thoughtful for a second before nodding "For how long?"

"As long as you can, I need a minimum of three months after the chunnin exams coming up."

Itachi nodded, before getting up and leaving the amp before anyone back at base noticed his disappearance. Naruto sat in deep thought before sighing and retiring to his tent.

* * *

**Time Skip: The Night Of The Raid

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**

Sasuke adjusted his small headset, hearing the crackle of Kakashi's voice come over it, they were all in position, however he and Sakura were both a bit doubtful of the two new 'allies' Kakashi had suddenly introduced.

While their sensei had assured them that the raid wasn't a trap and that Zabuza and Haku had truly switched sides Sasuke still wasn't assured and was on higher alert then before.

As soon as Kakashi gave them the signal to move in Sasuke shot out of the shrubbery and with a few quick motions cut the throats of the guards allowing his team and their two allies access. Giving a quick nod to Kakashi he disappeared out of view and went to perimeter the area 'taking care of' any enemy along the way.

The other three shinobi and one kunoichi entered the building, Haku, Sakura and Zabuza immediately went for the stairs while Kakashi started the slaughter on the ground floor.

* * *

Sakura went over the map she made mentally and drew her way towards Gatou's office where she would take care of him while Haku covered her on the third floor. Zabuza had taken the second floor.

She saw Haku cover her from the corner of her eye as she made her way down the corridor of the third floor. She dodged a slash made at her and cut off the mans arm. The male screamed in agony before she slashed his throat and moved on. She forced the bile that rose in her throat back down, it wasn't the time for this, she could brood all she wanted later, she wondered how Sasuke was handling all of this.

* * *

Said raven had long finished his part of the mission and was now kneeling down at the base of a tree, emptying his stomach of its contents.

He had decided…he really didn't like killing.

Glancing down at his bloodied hands he sat back and idly wondered how Itachi was able to do it. He had killed them all and it didn't seem to affect him…at all.

Sasuke was barely able to handle killing someone he didn't know, and yet Itachi was able to kill his entire family and be fine with it? Sasuke was confused and slightly angry, something he was tired of being. Was he really able to kill Itachi?

Sasuke got rid of those thoughts, not now he needed to focus on the mission now. Standing up he did a quick fire jutsu to get rid of the mess in front of him and made his way inside to help his teammates.

* * *

Kakashi finished off the mercenaries on his floor and was now gathering information and documents sealed inside various rooms. He was about to enter another room when he saw a bloodied Sasuke walk through the entrance. The silver haired man grimaced at the sight of the boy, although Kakashi will admit he was impressed at how Sasuke was holding up.

He greeted his student with a one eyed smile, the boy raised a brow at his sensei as he gave the man a once over. Staring blankly at his student Kakashi looked down at himself as well and noticed he was covered in blood and gore as well and had just waved at said boy like there was nothing wrong. Needless to say Kakashi sweat-dropped and Sasuke rolled his eyes at his sensei's absentmindedness and went on to ask he needed him to do anything.

* * *

Zabuza cursed, this floor was useless there was hardly more then 80562 yen in here. Shaking his head in disgust Zabuza thought _'and these people call themselves mercenaries'_ before he moved into the next room.

* * *

Haku and Sakura had finished with their floor without too much difficulty and were now making their way downstairs, all the while making idle chitchat. Haku was surprised that the girl was handling taking another life so well. When the boy voiced his thoughts Sakura looked down cast and shook her head saying she just wasn't thinking about it, giving her an remorseful look he apologized she shook her head and said she would have to face it sometime and gave him a determined smile which he returned.

* * *

When they all got back together they exchanged experiences and made their way back towards Tazuna's house who nearly had a heart attack at the sight of Zabuza and the fake hunter nin until Kakashi calmed them down and told them they were now allies.

* * *

At the same time Naruto had just returned to the village and immediately continued his way away from the main road and onto a less familiar route away from the poverty and into the less occupied streets of the village. Graffiti infested the walls of the dark alleyway Naruto calmly entered, reaching the end of the alleyway the boy was met with the sight of dozens of other shops, however unlike the ones on the main streets these held dark objects.

The place was gloomier then others even at night, Naruto crinkled his nose as a familiar nasty stench hit his senses, waving the smell off Naruto continued his way down the familiar narrow road into a small shop, the shop held immense amounts of explosives, and all sorts of weaponry. Naruto smirked, it was just as he remembered. The blond made his way through to the front of the shop and placed a nearby wooden chair in front of the counter, so that the back of the chair faced the counter before sitting down and leaning onto the counter staring at the bleach blond man behind it.

"Hello Hiruma-san"

The other blond male simply raised a brow at the boy in front of him, narrowing his eyes, he blew a bubble with his gum before it popped. Both blonds surveyed each other, the tension in the shop increased dramatically, both males kept each others gaze. Naruto looked over the man and grinned when he saw that after all these years back nothing about the man had changed. He had the same bleached hair, two silver hoops in his pointed ear, his teeth were still as sharp as ever. Naruto held back a shudder, he always wondered how the male had gotten them as sharp as he did, the male had pale skin, almost more so then Sasuke. Naruto grinned at the man, who narrowed his eyes

"Get out of the fucken shop if you're not going to buy anything, fucken pipsqueak" Naruto's grin, if possible grew wider, before he replied

"I heard you were the one to go to if you needed any specific battle requirements"

The man called Hiruma narrowed his eyes and blowing his gum until it's 'pop' resounded around the empty shop.

"Depends on what I get in return, fucken pipsqueak" Naruto flashed him a sly grin and waved multiple pictures in front of the mans face, Hiruma stopped chewing, before, for the first time in weeks, he grinned maliciously, showing his large pointed teeth. The younger blond said simply

"I heard you were lacking with blackmail against Orochimaru"

Graciously taking the photographs from his hands the older male surveyed them for a while before turning to the younger blond and asking "So what do you want Fucking Fox?"

Naruto grinned once more _'Let the games begin'

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**It's a little longer then the others so hoped you enjoyed it the next chapter will hopefully be posted up sooner.**

**Anyway remember to review!

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**(1) Kyuubi Jinchūriki – 9 Tails**

**(2) Black Cherry Blossom

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**ShikaXD  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**I'm back and with a new chapter, as you can obviously see. It took a little while to get this one out, and I'm not sure if it's up to standards of all my other chapters but what the heck**

**Enjoy!**

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Naruto grinned at the other blond as he went through his plans for the upcoming years, Hiruma was calmly listening to the younger male his gaze betraying nothing that went on in his mind. Silently mulling over the thought of allying himself with the genin and weighed out the pros and cons of the situation.

"Alright fucking kitsune, I'll cooperate, but I expect more of this-" he said pointing to the photos "at least every two months". Naruto smiled "I wouldn't have it any other way Hiruma-san"

Hiruma smiled maliciously "Well then fucking kitsune, follow me…and don't dawdle!"

Naruto grinned, it was good to be back. Following the taller man behind the counter and through a door to the side, down a heap of stairs and into the cellar, the sight that greeted him was one he had not seen in years, memories bombarded him of people who had died in the war.

Glancing around the room of familiar faces he picked out the faces in the crowed and spotted the smallest one, Kobayakawa Sena. He remembered the boy was around his own age now (well physically speaking), the boy was known to be the perfect target for a bully. Sena had a good heart, but the boy was so jumpy that he squeaked at the sight of his own shadow! Naruto still remembered the day he had met him and decided to help the boy at least attempt to stand up for himself and teach him a bit of defense, the fact that the boy was fast definitely helped. By the time Naruto was through with him, Sena had become as fast as Gai and was as determined as himself. The boy was no push over, yet he had lost him to the war when he was sent on a mission along with Yamato and two other ANBU to infiltrate Kusagakure.

Naruto had sent them out to find out how many ships were coming through with weaponry, food, as well as other goods. With that they would have been able to estimate the amount of shinobi they were up against, their defenses and how to possibly counter them, as well as the conditions the enemy would be in and how it would affect there performance. The mission was going smoothly until Yamato tripped a wire and set off a trap, Sena moved before anyone had registered what happened and ended up getting gravely injured. The team raced back towards Konohagakure as fast as they could, Sena was admitted into the hospital, however, by that time, the boy's body had taken too much damage and had lost too much blood and they were not able to save him. The mission had been a success and would have been one of the main reasons for the victory of the war (if Sakura had not interfered), however it came with a cost.

The loss hit Naruto hard, and was deeply angered boy the fact that he wasn't able to properly mourn the loss. He turned to another familiar face, slightly reddish hair, tall and curved, holding that same broom in her hand and the familiar 'mother-hen' type attitude, Naruto held back a wide smile as the face of Mamori turned to face him.

Mamori was another he had lost in the war, although she was never on the battlefield she did her part by helping to take care of the children that had lost there parents at the time. The girl lived longer then Sena and from what Naruto had gathered from the time spent with her she was very much like a surrogate older sister to the boy during the time he was alive. The girl would beat off all threats that had been directed at the boy, Naruto remembered the when she had found out about his teaching Sena, the girl nearly blew her top off. It took them hours to calm her down enough to talk to her rationally, in the end they had sorted out the disagreement (but not without any scars). It was the first time in all his years as Hokage that he actually felt threatened.

When Naruto first heard the news of Sena's death, his heart broke not only because he had lost another friend but for the girl who spent years upon years practically raising the boy. The girl who loved him to his very core, he remembered he barely contained the tears at the mere thought of having to break the news to Mamori. When he explained to her what had happened, Naruto felt his eyes tear as he watched the young woman. She had stood and stared at him shocked and barely able to process what was happening, she hadn't even realized the tears that poured down her cheeks.

Naruto watched her as she collapsed still staring him in the eyes and then he saw something that he knew would forever remain engraved in his heart as a constant reminder of all those who had sacrificed themselves for the village. He watched as her eyes dulled a little losing there usual light, the happiness that was once there was gone replaced with an empty void of hopelessness and despair. However, what the worst part of telling her was the fact that for one brief moment, and although she denied it countless number of times, he saw a look of betrayal flash through her eyes. At that moment, Naruto fully understood what was expected of anyone wanting to be Hokage, it was at that point that he vowed he would never let anyone walk through the doors of his office and leave with the same look Mamori had in her eyes…and yet he had still failed.

Naruto savagely pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind things would be different this time around he promised himself. Looking back around the room he noticed Argon there as well. The male still had his nasty temper and long dreadlocks, and was possibly as fast as Sena or at least on par with him. Argon glared at Naruto as his eyes fell on him, Naruto blanched at the familiar expression, it was the type that said Naruto was going to have to prove he was a piece of 'trash' and that he was worth something. Naruto went through hell trying to prove himself to the man last time, almost gotten himself killed at the same time. He held back a sigh at that. Argon left during the middle of the war, his business took itself elsewhere, where there was less destruction and plentiful business. If he wanted to Argon could have involved himself in the war. Naruto did not doubt for a second that the man would have been a great asset to have on there side, but Argon had a strict 'every man for himself' type attitude. For that he did not involve himself and lived a plentiful life which Naruto was happy to see him do during his time …in the future?

Tearing his eyes away from him Naruto tuned into Hiruma's introduction of everyone in the room, of course Naruto already knew but decided to listen to the man all the same as to not look like he knew too much. The genin noticed that many of the original members were not present; he hoped they were all alive and well and had not been affected by him coming and changing the past.

"…So fucking kitsune…what weapons do you need?"

Naruto grinned. It was good to be back.

* * *

Kakashi cursed colorfully, Sakura looked around worriedly, sweat dripped from Sasuke's brow, Haku kept his face down but the crease in his brow gave him away. Zabuza looked around with a passive face, a drop of sweat making its way down the man's cheek. Each one of them were glaring at one thing. Tazuna.

"Another full house! Read 'em and weep idiots! Ha! And you call your self ninja!" Tazuna continued to laugh and boast of his own 'awesomeness' completely unaware of the ten eyes which were attempting to glare a very large hole through the bridge builder's head.

Zabuza growled and turned to the copy-cat ninja, "Aren't you meant to be the Sharingan Kakashi? What the hell happened to that psychic thing of yours?" Kakashi glared at the man a growl of his own erupting from his throat "Shut it fish face" he spat back. The two glared at each other as Haku and Sakura attempted to get the shinobi to calm down.

A day had passed since the raid and the mission was once again passing smoothly, the bridge's progress, although slower from when Naruto was able to summon his clones, was still coming along nicely. Kakashi was beginning to get nervous at Naruto's disappearance, the boy was late he was meant to arrive sometime this morning. If the blond didn't hurry Sasuke and Sakura, who were already giving him questioning glances, would start asking questions.

As if Naruto had heard his thoughts and decided to grant him his wish, he burst through the door startling everyone with his boisterous shout of "KAKA-SENSEI, I'M BACK! So did you miss me?"

Kakashi regained his bearings and gave a one-eyed smile at his cute student, he held back a laugh as Tazuna grumbled and cursed the blond to oblivion while picking himself up from where he had fallen off the chair in shock. Zabuza had a malicious grin on his face as he watched the old man taking comfort in the fact that he had been humiliated, after all no one was meant to beat him in poker…no one.

Sasuke looked on trying to seem disinterested and bored however, he was not able to keep the smug smirk hidden as he watched Tazuna, he too, like Zabuza, had found the bridge builders situation highly amusing. Sakura and Haku were more worried about the man then they were satisfied (although Inner Sakura was cursing a storm screaming that the man deserved everything he got).

"Naruto! Welcome back, how was the mission?"

Naruto's grin got wider at the question "It was great! I even took pictures! Wanna see?"

Kakashi smiled questioningly at the boy and but nodded all the same, Naruto grinned and bounce over to him taking the pictures out of his cloak. Holding them up as though he were holding cards he thrust them in front of Kakashi's face, the silver haired man who had taken a sip of water sprayed it back out and choked at the photo's in front of him.

Naruto burst out laughing at the man's reaction, Zabuza, having gotten curious, looked over the blonds shoulder and gawked. "Are these real?" he voice his thoughts still looking on in disbelief.

"Yep! And I even made copies, I really think I out do myself sometimes!" Naruto exclaimed happily looking proudly at the photographs in his hands. The pictures consisted of many different women in different sceneries, all in very, very sensual poses and all revealing _much_ more then what was necessary and were wearing _less_ clothing then the day they were born.

" Uzamaki Naruto where the hell did you find a place to take picture's like this?! No, forget that, are those photographs even legal?! Did you even get consent?!"

Naruto turned nervously to face a fuming Kakashi, leaving Zabuza to quietly gawk at the pictures. The genin laughed nervously,

"Aw come on sensei you know I go to these kinds of places and of course they're legal! Geez just because you haven't gotten any lately doesn't mean you have to come in and ruin my fun" Naruto said with a pout.

Zabuza threw his head back and barked with laughter, Sakura seemed at a loss for words but her horrified features spoke volumes. Haku blushed so hard it put Hinata to shame, Tazuna ended up chocking on air before rushing to Zabuza's side and peeking in with the man, blood dribbling down his nose. Sasuke cocked his head to the side seemingly interested with the turn of events; Naruto really knew how to stir up a household.

"Na-ru-to" Kakashi growled dangerously a shadow coming over his face as he glared at the blond. Said blond glared back at his sensei, before he sighed and said in a disappointed tone, that sounded very much like a child would after being scolded

"I knew you'd be angry…" he lowered his head the glare slipping off his features, everyone looked surprise at this, except Kakashi who continued to stare in disapproval. But Naruto wasn't finished, taking something out of his cloak once more he exclaimed happily"…that's why I got you the new Icha Icha volume! It's complete with special features, pictures and has sneak peeks into the next volume after this one!"

Kakashi's visible eye widened as he stared at the long awaited novel and snatched it away from his now grinning student. He held the book in front of him with shaky hands before turning to face his student a smile on his features and said in a cheerful tone "Remember not to flaunt next time!" before he ran upstairs intent on reading his new novel.

Naruto grinned at his accomplishment

"And that kids is how you avoid getting into trouble!" before he snatched his pictures away from the two other perverted men and skipped over to one of the available couches. It was only then that he took a good look at thing and found Zabuza and Haku in the room…and no one was freaking out.

Naruto looked at the two men blankly, the men returned the gesture and after a few seconds the blond cocked his head to one side and asked quite simply "Haku, Zabuza…what are you two doing here?"

Everyone in the room face vaulted to the floor, Naruto just grinned.

* * *

**Two Days Later (Dumb People that means Time Skip!)

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**

Cell seven could be found in Tazuna's backyard training, Sakura was training with a clone Naruto who was instructing her in being able to better harness her power. The clone mentally noted that the female needed to strengthen her reserves, the girl had only been training for fifteen minutes and although he knew that, the past fifteen minutes were no walk in the park he knew that neither was being a kunoichi. The more advantage she had over the enemy the better, shinobi naturally tended to underestimate female ninjas and for this fact, Naruto was actually thankful on Sakura's behalf. For it meant that if Sakura lifted her reserves and trained hard enough to last longer as well as have better control over her new power, shinobi would literally never know what hit them. Although (now) she is no push over for a genin, it still never hurt to be prepared, anything was possible, for example the up coming war.

Nodding to himself Naruto barked another order to the pink haired kunoichi, who glare in return before complying. Over on the lake Naruto was watching Sasuke fight with one of his (Sasuke's) own clones, while trying to balance on the surface of the liquid. Naruto watched happily, as Sasuke tore through his expectations and was breaking very little sweat. The blond was sure that by the time they returned to Konoha they would be more then ready to be able to face the chuunin exams. The up coming war, however, was a different matter, no, they still had a long way to go before they could go up against the Suna and Sound nin.

Naruto was suddenly torn from his thoughts when he felt a very faint pulse come from the distance. The chakra signature was becoming very familiar to him. Itachi was here.

Making sure no one was watching Naruto left a clone in his place and discretely slipped into the surrounding shadows of the forest and swiftly and silently made his way towards his ally.

Upon reaching his destination Naruto looked on with confusion, Itachi was standing with an impassive look on his face; however, his posture was radiating annoyance. "Ita-chan? Is their a problem?"

Itachi gave a slow nod, "Akatsuki has gotten suspicious of my sudden disappearances, unfortunately I will not be able to meet you for a while, I have already put myself at risk to deliver this message to you."

Naruto nodded in understanding, his face devoid of any of his usual cheerful behavior "How long will this go on?" Itachi thought for a moment before replying

"A year, they will lessen there suspicion after then" Naruto frowned, a year was too long, too much could happen within the organization and he would never know.

"Is there a form of communication we can use to contact each other? One that is not traceable?"

Itachi took another moment to think "There is a way, however it is taxing on my eyesight"

Naruto shook his head "Nothing that makes you any blinder then you already are Itachi" he said sternly. Itachi raised a brow delicately at the blonde-haired genin's tone. "Is there any other way?"

Itachi shook his head, Naruto sighed denying heatedly "there must be!", Itachi's eyes shone with amusement at the blonds reaction. Catching the glint in the others eye the 'younger' male asked in annoyance "What's so funny?"

Ignoring the blonds question, Itachi explained his thoughts. "Naruto-kun my eyesight is already damaged severely from my constant over-use of the Sharingan, a consequence I had overlooked when younger. Extending the use of my Kekkei Genkai, however taxing on my eyesight, it will only increase the speed of an inevitable process. Although it would be regrettable that I will lose my sight, I have already predicted that I will lose it in another three years. It will serve better to use the form of communication I have suggested then to deny that use and to lose valuable information trying to save what can not be saved."

The blond stared gaping before managing to find his voice and stuttering "Y-you spoke! And more then one sentence!"

Instead of finding this annoying the man gave a lopsided smirk of amusement, before he moved on "Naruto-kun, you still have not given me an answer and I am running out of time."

The blond snapped out of his shock before returning to a more somber mood "Are you sure this is the only possible way?" Itachi nodded affirmatively. Giving a sigh Naruto asked him what the form of communication was.

Itachi continued to explain "By using my acquired _Mangekyō Sharingan_ I will be able to gain access to perform a forbidden _Fūinjutsu_ which essentially allows a telepathic link between the jutsu user and the recipient."

Naruto looked on confused "How does it work? I've never heard of a _Fūinjutsu_ which allows something such as a telepathic link between two persons, will the jutsu allow for more then two people to enter the link or is it limited to just the user and participant?"

Itachi smirked as he said "Naruto-kun perhaps you did hear me say 'forbidden _Fūinjutsu_'…" Naruto scowled and gave the man a mock glare mumbling how he knew a few forbidden _Fūinjutsu_. Itachi held back a chuckle before continuing "…As you no doubt already know the Uchiha Clan's _Mangekyō Sharingan_ gives the user access to powerful and forbidden techniques."

Naruto nodded in confirmation, seeing this, the spy continued, "As a result I now have knowledge of more jutsu then an average _Sharingan _user. Along with this comes a rare _Fūinjutsu_ which allows another who does not have my Kekkei Genkai access to the alternate universe within the _Mangekyō Sharingan_, do you follow?"

Naruto nodded looking more and more curious with each passing second. "Using the _Fūinjutsu _will connect the user and participant in such a way that the if the participant wants to contact the user he/she will be able to do so at any given time through a telepathic link…"

"Wait, I thought you said it will give me access to alternate universe within your _Mangekyō Sharingan_, does that not mean we will be either unconscious or mediating when attempting to contact the other? Do our sub-consciousness's not meet with one another within the universe?"

Itachi nodded at the questions "The _Fūinjutsu_ will allow both forms of contact, however contacting each other within the _Mangekyō Sharingan_ drains both the user and the participant considerably and is best used when asleep."

Naruto looked at the other in confusion "I don't understand how it is possible to have a telepathic link to another?" Itachi smiled before explaining

"**Shingou Rinku no Jutsu****(1)**requires more than simply applying the correct amount of chakra and performing the correct hand-seals. As seen in many other _Fūinjutsu_ 's blood is also key enforcer in this _Fūinjutsu_, although it involves a much more hefty donation. This is one of the main reasons why **Shingou Rinku no Jutsu** is forbidden to users, usually the participants of the jutsu are supposed to be so physically drained that they are unable to perform for another three days."

Naruto confused cut Itachi off "Itachi, that would be physically impossible, to lose that much blood, surely the users would die on the spot"

The dark haired male smiled at the perception before continuing "You would be correct in saying that Naruto-kun, _if_ blood was the only key enforcer. Had you continued to listen patiently I would have gone on to tell you that like your **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu****(2)** it also requires mass amounts of chakra, and is another reason why this _Fūinjutsu_ is strictly forbidden to a Shinobi of any class. It is highly dangerous and life threatening, even if carried out correctly, upon the few 50 or so Uchiha who have attempted this jutsu only four have survived."

Naruto gave the other man an incredulous gaze "…and you want to try this…?" Itachi simply nodded. Naruto stared for a few more seconds before his face upturned with a face-splitting grin, "Great! I always knew you weren't a nutter like everyone said, I mean, how could another jutsu lover like you and I be crazy? This is awesome, I wonder what…"

Naruto continued to ramble on with excitement while Itachi stood and stared, the missing-nin sighed, _'why am I always stuck with the crazy ones, first power hungry freaks of a clan, next a homicidal fish and now a hyperactive suicidal blond time-traveler, what's next an overgrown perverted frog with no sense of the female species?'_

Snapping the blond out of his ramble Itachi said "Naruto we have already wasted enough time I need your answer, this jutsu has a long process so we need to hurry if we are to perform it."

Naruto stared at Itachi still grinning and said "Hell Yeah!"

'_How did this person become Hokage?'_ was Itachi's last thoughts before preparing to perform the jutsu.

* * *

Naruto moved sluggishly back to Tazuna's house, it was already nearing dusk, his clones dispelled a while ago while performing the jutsu telling him that Sakura and Sasuke had finished training for the day and gone inside to rest. The blond panted barely able to keep his eyes open, he leaned against a nearby tree and wondered how Itachi was fairing.

"Naruto!"

The blond tensed cursing himself for letting his guard down and whirled around however that wasn't the smartest thing to do in his current condition. A massive rush left him with his head spinning and a throbbing headache; he saw the ground coming closer to him. Naruto cursed himself once again and shut his eyes waiting for the impact, however when it never came he opened them to find himself in the arms of his jounin sensei.

Even with the mask securely over his face you could see it was etched with worry, Naruto's mind sluggishly tried to comprehend the recent events

"Kaka-sensei?" Naruto blinked lethargically unable to keep his eyes open, Itachi wasn't kidding when he said that the jutsu would drain him.

"Naruto, what the hell happened to you?! You were gone for a while I got worried, how did you end up like this?" Kakashi's voice was urgent and soaked with worry, Naruto could only imagine what the jounin looked like as he could get a proper focus on the mans face, everything was getting blurry…that wasn't good.

"Gomen, Kaka-sensei, practicing new jutsu…carried away…chakra exhaustion…out for couple days…" and with those last words Naruto succumbed himself into blissful unconsciousness, leaving an irate Kakashi behind.

Realizing that getting angry would do neither him nor Naruto any good he sighed, hoisting the blonde-haired genin onto his back and slowly made his way towards his 'employers' house. Really what was he going to do with his 'youngest' student, literally working himself to the point of exhaustion, he was going to kill himself one of these days.

Kakashi sighed and knocked upon the back door for entrance, he was immediately met with the sight of a anxiously (but not overly so) waiting Sakura and a slightly uneasy Sasuke. Blinking at the sight he smiled at his students before being bombarded with questions, he sighed once again this was going to be a long night.

The noise brought the attention of the two missing-nin and Tazuna's family soon he was being harassed with thrice the original number of questions. With a sweat-drop planted on the back of his head Kakashi cursed his youngest student.

* * *

**Three Days Later (Yay! More Time Skips!)

* * *

**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes taking his time to adjust to the new light, throughout the past few days he had been constantly drifting in and out of consciousness. Trying to get his bearings Naruto groaned as his head-ache came back with the memories of Itachi and the jutsu. Idly in the back of his mind he wondered if it had worked, as they had been to chakra depleted to try it after they had activated the _Fūinjutsu_. Using his hands to support the weight of his body he pushed himself off of the futon and steadied himself while trying to will away what, oddly enough, felt like a hangover.

Just then the door of the room opened and he heard Sakura's excited voice screech to downstairs telling practically the whole village that Naruto was awake, or that's what it sounded like to Naruto. The blond groaned in pain and clutched his head and gritted his teeth, he heard the females voice again from next to him only this time it was much softer, something Naruto was ever thankful for.

Opening his eyes he gazed at her through half lidded eyes trying to make out the blurred figure he heard her saying something

"-you alright?"

Naruto blinked his eyes focusing at last, "What?"

An annoyed look crossed the girls face, but before she could repeat the question the door burst open again to reveal a furious Kakashi, an indifferent Sasuke, a worried Haku and a amused Zabuza. All of them talking at the same time, some yelling some laughing and some scolding.

The blonds eye twitched, a vein popped on top of his head and his temper raised, soon he was livid. Now Naruto was never good with hangovers, his temper usually reached levels even Tsunade's wouldn't go. So when nearly everyone in the house came barging into his room making a ruckus giving him a worse headache then before, Naruto got livid, the killing intent in the room reached a all time high.

"**Get out**"

Was the only thing he said before everyone recognized the situation and slowly backed away out the door, all of them under Naruto's cold piercing azure gaze.

As soon as they were out of the room Naruto flopped back down on his futon and stared at the ceiling for a second before groaning and turning to his side all the while mumbling

"I need some booze"

* * *

**(1) - Signaling Link Technique (correct me if I'm wrong)  
**

**(2) -Shadow Clone Technique

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**

**So how'd you like it? Review and let me know =D**

**And sorry to all Itachi fans, Itachi probably won't show for another year (in the fanfic) but when he does it'll be worth your while lol. Anyway Kakashi will get his revenge on his students for all there pranks very soon, also Naruto's in trouble! **

**Uh Oh Kakashi's mad! Watch out Naruto, you may escaped this time but next time you wont be so lucky XD**

**Till next time **

**Ja ne

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**

**Shika XD**


	12. Chapter 12

Hey people!

No this isn't an update, I know I haven't updated in a while and you're probably going too have to wait a bit longer, my trials are in a couple of weeks and after that I've got my HSC (FML .) anyway moving on. I have a couple of things to do after my HSC as well, so I might not get to update at all for the rest of the year. HOWEVER that does not mean that this story is a deadfic, has been abandoned, or is up for adoption but is simply on a long hiatus.

To all my fans sorry for not updating and I promise to get a chapter as soon as I can to everyone else have a happy (very early) summer holiday.

**Shika XD**

_P.s. To all those who are fans of my short Shika/FemNaru one-shots I'll try and get your requested story up (I realise I haven't written one in a while now). Anyway that's all for now_

_Ja ne._


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! I wish I did but I don't, blah, blah, blah, on with the story! XD**

**OMG! I'M BACK! Lol, I hope you like the chapter, I haven't written anything in a while so I don't know if the chapter sucks by what I've written in previous chapters but aw well.**

**Enjoy!

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**

Azure orbs fluttered open for the second time that day, the headache had dulled slightly since Naruto last woke up, however it still did a good job at causing him pain. The blond groaned, how was it that he ended up this way?

Oh right….Itachi…

Naruto's eyes widened before he suddenly shot up from where he lay, sitting in a comfortable position the blond cleared his mind and proceeded to perform the correct hand seals needed for the jutsu. "**Shingou Rinku no Jutsu**"

* * *

**{****Enter Mindscape****}

* * *

**

In his mindscape, Naruto was met with the sight of a large set of sturdy bars and a resting Demon Fox. Rotating around on the spot he searched for Itachi, hoping that he had not botched up the technique, a movement behind him caught his attention. Turning around he was met with the sight of deep crimson eyes, yelping Naruto jumped and fell back on his ass.

The Uchiha above him smirked, Naruto pouted "Maa, Ita-chan~, that was mean~" he whined. Still smirking Itachi held out his hand, which Naruto accepted, and pulled the blond up off the floor.

Behind them Kyuubi grunted in his sleep, looking at the demon Itachi thought '_So that is the great Kyuubi no Kitsune, this is what Akutsuki is after_' However he filed the thought away to ponder on later before turning his attention back to the genin who was calling him.

"Ma Itachi-san, were you doing anything important before I called?"

"No," Itachi said, keeping his expression blank, then in a teasing humor added, "If I had been preoccupied I would not have bothered to responded to your call, Naruto-kun"

Naruto gasped a mock-horrified expression appearing on his face before curling up into a ball, depression lines hanging above his head and fake tears streaming down his face. "Ita-chan is so mean today!" he wailed.

The other mentally rolled his eyes at the blondes melodramatic state and after a few seconds, he asked "Was their a reason you have called on me, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde sobered and faced Itachi. His features blank as if still comprehending the question, suddenly Naruto let out a shout of surprise as if he had just realised something, Itachi watched intrigued by his reaction

"I did call you out didn't I?" came the definite response and light punch of his palm in realisation. The Uchiha's figure twitched a little, inching towards his weapons pouch, however restrained himself "Well I really didn't want anything other then to confirm the link we made worked and because I thought you might have collapsed yesterday because of the overuse of chakra!" The 'genin' exclaimed growing more worried as he remembered his reasoning for calling the older male.

Itachi twitched again before throwing a kunai in Naruto's direction, a yelp and crash was his response, much to his satisfaction. Before the younger male could get the chance to open his mouth and complain, Itachi stepped forward towards the blonde and looked down a murderous aura surrounding him. Naruto gulped and laughed nervously "W-What did I do?"

The aura that surrounded Itachi became even more imposing. Naruto gulped; maybe he said the wrong thing.

"Naruto-kun you do realize that I, unlike you - who has two chakra cores, am exceedingly tired due to having exhausted my _only_ core. Not only have you required me to use what little chakra I have left in my fatigued state for a reason as useless as 'to confirm the link we made worked'; however you also had the audacity to question my intelligence at the same time. Additionally, you have also had the impudence to carry all this out after I have just regained my consciousness and come to the realization of my extremely bad headache after a particularly dire conference with the Leader. Moreover, after scrambling with a barely plausible attempt to explain why it is that I have severely depleted chakra reserves and look as if I am to drop dead any second, you still have the nerve to ask what it is you did wrong. Naruto-kun, however thankful I am to you for everything you have done up until now, please remove yourself from my sight, before I make the word bloodbath look like a desert."

Naruto nodded vigorously, Itachi raised a brow, "You're still here Naruto-kun, and my patience is wearing thin" Naruto 'eeped' before escaping the mindscape.

* * *

**{****Exit Mindscape****}

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**

Still shaken Naruto opened his eyes to see one dark iris staring back, the blond shouted in surprise before falling backwards screaming "Cyclops!"

"Naruto-kun" a voice deadpanned. Naruto stopped his movements and turned to the source, Kakashi sat cross legged on the floor next to his futon, a tick visible on his brow. Realizing what had happened Naruto grinned sheepishly '_Ma, this is not a good way to start my day, first Itachi-san and now Kakashi-sensei, heaven forbid I manage to run into Tsunade-oba-chan and piss her off too'_

"Ah…..g-gomen Kaka-sensei….its just with the eye…and I couldn't see….the cloth was….umm I'm going to shut up now" He finished lamely as he saw the angry expression on Kakashi's face growing into something homicidal as Naruto tried to explain.

Still looking at Kakashi's expression Naruto thought _'okay so I took him for a Cyclops, there's really no need for him to be that angry!'_

"**Kit his anger goes deeper then just that, you really are thick aren't you"** It was a statement not a question. A vein popped out of Naruto's head.

'_All right then Kyuu-no-baka, what's he so pissed off about?'_

"**Kit this is the second time you took off without a word about who you were meeting and where you were going and the last time you came back in terrible condition. It was bound to get him livid, besides I think he still needs to pay you back for all the pranks you played on him." **Kyuubi snickered at the last part, while Naruto paled a bit. Sure, he was recovering well, but that did not mean he was in top physical condition and avoiding Kakashi's revenge pranks was going prove difficult if the man's expression said anything.

"Uhm….K-K-Kakashi-sensei…." Naruto called nervously looking up he was met with a hard expression. Flinching Naruto's gaze returned to the floor

'_Damn, I really pissed him off this time.'_

"**It's no wonder, although you were helpful in training the two brats, you completely disregarded the mission and left preoccupied with your own devices. Now I don't know about you but I do not think that is something a reliable teammate would do, and if I remember correctly this person is all for teamwork and the whole 'those who abandon there comrades are trash' thing.**

Naruto flushed in embarrassment and shame at the demons words. When met with silence from the other Kyuubi continued

"**As much as I hate to say it kit, you completely fucked this one up. You managed to get a few more contacts for the upcoming war but at the same time you disregarded the mission, something that's frowned upon in any shinobi nation and sometimes, if the situation turns for the worst, punishable by death. This alone can make him regret trusting you; forget him trusting you enough to follow you into a war. On top of that, you did what your Jōnin sensei despises more then any enemy, personally I am surprised he hadn't cornered you sooner. Have no doubt in your mind that this will reach the Hokage's ears. Even though in your time the other two brats caused the downfall of our nation, at the same time your Jōnin sensei's thoughts are, here they are just genin and although you have seen them at their worst, they have not even begun to learn their own limits yet. You got yourself in a tight spot this time kit; you allowed this war to blind you, good luck undoing the damage."**

Naruto clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he listened to the truthful words of the demon. Kakashi had not spoken a word either glancing up once again he was again met with a cold expression, bowing his head to the floor the blond spoke in a soft regretful tone

"Gomen-nasai, I did wrong by yours and Hokage-sama's teachings, I disregarded my position as a teammate, alley and one of the shinobi code of laws for my own misgivings, forgive me"

Naruto waited for the Jōnin's reply, Kakashi looked at him stonily for a few more seconds before quietly getting up from his seated position and exited the room leaving Naruto biting his lip, eyes screwed and bowing to an empty space.

"**It'll be alright kit…"

* * *

**

Naruto had stayed in his bowing position until night fall, his legs had cramped hours ago and were on the verge of going numb, he hadn't gotten up to eat or drink and seeing as no one else had entered the room, the blond was certain that the scarecrow had forbidden anyone from entering.

Naruto didn't care all he wanted at the moment was to regain the mans trust and if that meant reverting back to the old style of asking (begging) for forgiveness then so be it.

The blond knew that even if he was forgiven their would be a punishment and it would not be a light one, especially considering Hokage-sama and Kakashi already knew of his status. Albeit it would be a private punishment, Kakashi's cover-up of Naruto doing the Hokage's bidding elsewhere would raise questions of why he was being punished in the first place. The future Hokage idly wondered what his Jōnin sensei had told his teammates and the two rogue shinobi to prevent them from entering the room for so long. Naruto winced as he felt his legs going numb, he knew by the time morning came he would have lost all feeling in his legs, but in all honesty he couldn't bring himself to care, he had done exactly what Sasuke (from the future) had done and abandoned his team mates for no other reason then his own selfishness.

Kyuubi sat in the corner of Naruto's mind watching the 'child' berating and cursing himself with softened eyes. The demon fox knew that the kit was going through a rough time trying to adjust to the fact that his teammates who were once his enemies were now once again his allies and people he could trust. The demon sighed, now it looked like he had to learn the hard way, Kyuubi was pulled from his thoughts as he noticed his host still his fidgeting and desires to stretch his legs.

The door had once again opened to reveal Kakashi standing in the doorway holding a tray of food and water, a look of surprise passed over his concealed features when he noticed the blonde-haired person before they disappeared just as quickly as they came. The genin missed the entire glimpse, as he had not looked up to see who had entered, but figured out who it was by the chakra signature.

Still watching the blond with an unreadable expression the Jōnin sighed, shutting the door closed behind him he walking across the room and laid the tray of food in front of the blond. "Eat", was his only command. However Naruto didn't so much as twitch, the blond could feel his stomach clench and writher in hunger, but he wasn't about to let his stomach get the better of him. He would not eat or drink until the man forgave him for his insubordination. Some would think him harsh on himself, others would think him a fool for turning down the offered kindness, Naruto, however, knew that this would be the best and most direct way to show the male how serious he was. Therefore, he did not move from his position and held his silence.

Kakashi seemed to understand what Naruto was attempting to do and narrowed his eyes, the blond would obviously know that Kakashi could leave him in this position for days, maybe weeks if he wished too. Assessing the blond once more, Kakashi nodded to himself, he would see how far the blond would go to seek his forgiveness, the Jōnin hadn't informed the Hokage of the blonds fieldtrips as of yet and the outcome of the newly arisen situation would decide whether or not he did so.

With that deciding thought, Kakashi left the food in front of the blond and exited the room, intending to ask Tsunami for another room, where Sasuke and himself could bunk, ready with a falsified story of Naruto being sick with a highly contagious cold.

The next morning Naruto awoke in the same kneeling position to notice the feeling, or in this case the lack of feeling, in the lower half of his body. His stomach felt empty and his throat was beyond parched. From what he could tell he had been unconscious for three days before awaking and then had slept for another day, so that was already four days he had gone without eating, including yesterday, that made five. Five days without any food or water, Naruto was not going to lie, no matter how much experience he had with dealing with lack of food and water during the war, the malnourishment was getting to him. Combined with his already depleted chakra reserves, the blonds body felt heavy and cramped, as well as completely and utterly exhausted despite the lack of activity. The genin shook those thoughts away and cleared his mind, focusing on nothing but his apology to the Jōnin.

It was not until noon that the Jōnin came to check on him again a tray of food in his hand. The Jōnin did not even bat an eyelash at the genin's position, he figured if Naruto was anything like his counterpart, the boy would not give in until he succeeded in what he was doing. He glanced at the untouched tray of food that lay on the floor cold and forgotten; again, he crossed the room and replaced the cold tray with the new hot one instead.

Kakashi would return the next day to find that one had gone cold as well.

* * *

Two days had passed and each day Kakashi entered the room to find Naruto still in the same position, the food on the floor cold. Kakashi admired the boy for his perseverance, many other people, be they shinobi or not, would have long ago given into their desire for food and water. He sighed and made his way up the stairs, he may have not forgiven the boy completely, but if he kept him in the state he was in now any longer the boy would most likely pass out and do far more damage to his body then needed.

Grasping the handle on the door, Kakashi sighed once more and pushed it open, unsurprisingly the genin was still in the same position on the floor. Crossing the room, he stopped in front of the boy and sat down replacing the old try of food with the new one he had brought along with him. He took another glance at the blonde-haired shinobi, he was swaying slightly beads of sweat dripped down from his temple and he could see the boys' legs trembling, cramped, from being in the same position for too long. He sighed again "Naruto-kun…"

Naruto froze, this was the first time Kakashi had spoken to him since he awoke four days ago. "Given the amount of time you have spent here, I assume you have not let it go to waste and have reflected upon your actions." Kakashi paused, still keeping his gaze on the blond, Naruto gave no indication that he had heard the older male but Kakashi knew he was listening.

"Know that I have not forgiven you completely… and to be honest I don't think I ever will…" The time-traveller felt himself stiffen at the others words gritting his teeth, while Kyuubi tried to consol him as best he could. "…however, I will not take this matter up with the Hokage and I will give you a chance to redeem yourself over time." Kakashi finished still looking at the blonde, his stiff posture had not escaped the mans eye.

The Jōnin knew that Naruto had truly regretted his actions and that was part of the reason he had not informed the Hokage, but at the same time the genin had borderline betrayed his comrades, his actions proved he had done what he claimed he came here to prevent. If Kakashi had not been positively sure that Naruto had repented for his actions then his trust in the blonde would have been lost.

Silently Kakashi waited a few more seconds for the blonde to move, when he didn't Kakashi sighed "Naruto-kun, I will forgive your actions just this once and will continue to put some form of trust in your judgement, however to do that I will need you alive, so please, eat."

Again, the Copycat waited for the blonde to move, he almost sighed in relief when said blonde lifted his head up.

Now Kakashi had been expecting anything when he met the blonds gaze; an expression of relief, anger, frustration, guilt, anything, what he had definitely not expected though was the sheepish smile that met his eye

"I would Kaka-sensei, but um…you see, I can't move, it hurts too much," Naruto said indicating to his cramped legs. Kakashi sweat-dropped, but smiled at the use of his name, Naruto understood that he had not wanted these state of affairs to change anything between the team. "You really are a handful Naruto-kun, child or not." The blonde only continued to grin.

* * *

A week had passed and Naruto was up and running about in no time, Kakashi had informed him that he had told team 7, the rogue nins and their employee's that he had been out with a cold during his time spent in the room. Naruto merely nodded at the information and went about eagerly helping his teammates and Tazuna with the bridge, a large grin on his face that had not disappeared even once since he came out of his room.

During this time, Sasuke and Sakura had spent their time helping with the bridge and continuing their own training the blonde had manipulated them into doing, however none seemed to mind that much. However, Kakashi could see that they were both exceedingly interested in how it was that Naruto came by all this knowledge, but they duo never pushed for answers, that was something Kakahsi was both thankful and curious about.

When he asked them it was Sasuke who answered "It's not our business what the dobe does in his own time, how he came about the knowledge is for him to know and it's also his decision about whether to reveal any of it or not." Sakura just nodded from beside the raven.

It was two weeks later, with the help of Naruto's massive amount of clones that the bridge was completed and team 7, Zabuza and Haku were exiting the village having said their good bye's to Tazuna and his family, all on their way to Konoha. While gazing at their backs Tazuna asked a smile on his features what they should call the bridge, it was Inari that answered, his voice positive, assured and strong.

"The Great Naruto Bridge."

* * *

Meanwhile the group of shinobi continued on the road back to Konoha, oblivious to the happenings on the bridge. Sasuke and Zabuza had taken a surprising liking to each others company and were taking about various weaponry and jutsu's that they knew. Meanwhile Sakura and Haku took to talking about the medical field of a Shinobi's career, Sakura finding what the rogue shinobi had t say fascinating, had gotten out a note book and was quickly jotting away notes about what ever it was Haku was saying.

At the back of the whole group walking in silence was Kakashi and Naruto, despite what the older ex-ANBU member had said, the two had barely spoken to each other throughout the past wee that Naruto had exited the bedroom. The Scarecrow had kept his distance from the adult turned teenager and it was scaring Naruto slightly who had thought things were finally back on track.

Unknown to the distraught young blonde, Kakashi had glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes and smirked a little "Is something wrong Naruto-kun?" Kakashi asked in the same bored monotone he always used, while he flipped a page in his new Icha-Icha book.

The blonde jumped slightly not expecting the question, he fidgeted on the spot slightly unsure of whether to voice his concerns, in fear of annoying the other anymore then he already had. Shaking his head the blonde made up his mind and took a deep breath "Why have you been avoiding me?"

Kakashi turned his head slightly to get a better look at the genin and raised a brow "I think you know the answer to that,"

Naruto flinched before looking down at the ground not noticing the mischievous glint in Kakashi's eyes "After all I did say I hadn't forgiven you completely," He continued his tone suggesting he was being serious while his eyes twinkled in amusement, Naruto who still hadn't looked up had missed all of this, too lost in his slight depression.

"But, I guess I can forgive you completely now…" Kakashi sighed closing his book and looking down at the blonde who looked up eyes wide with surprise and confusion, "Eh? Why?" Naruto could help but blurt out, Kakashi once again raised a brow at the blonde, who started tripping over his words to rectify what he said

"Not that I don't want you too, it's just that you said it before and now you're saying it again and I'm just a little confused as to why you're..." Naruto trailed off before he started babbling and unsure of himself.

Kakashi sighed the twinkle of amusement and mischief still in his visible eye before he opened his book once more and tucked his hand into his pocket appearing nonchalant. "Well considering you so easily played into my prank, the amusement I'm going to get in a few seconds will be enough to compensate for your actions"

Naruto's eyes widened, finally understanding before yelping as massive 'poof' went off covering the genin completely with pink smoke. Kakashi put his book away and watched grinning as to what would come out of the smoke.

As the smoke cleared it showed the deadpanned face of Naruto who was now sporting, instead of his usual attire, a bright orange extra frilly and short maid outfit complete with the frilly hat on his head. Kakashi's grin turned into full blown laughter, while up ahead the other occupants of the group had long ago stopped and turned around to see what all the commotion was about.

Zabuza was the first to snap out of his daze and burst into fits of laughter, Haku tried desperately to conceal his laughs not wanting to upset the other male and Sakura stood frozen in shock and horror while Sasuke had a hard time from keeping his mouth from twitching into a full blown smile. "Not. Funny." Was the only thing Naruto managed to get out before another poof went off in the area, this time from Sasuke.

Everyone froze looking on in confusion, horror and amusement. Out of the smoke revealed a horrified Sasuke who now sported two black furry cat ears on his head and thin long black tail, a black and extremely short tank top and matching short shorts. The attire was complete with a little bell collar around the males neck.

"I suppose this will make you boys think twice before deciding to prank someone?" Kakashi spoke eye's filled with tears as he tried to keep his voice steady and not burst into fits of laughter as Zabuza was already doing. Sakura who had finally allowed her sensei's words to catch up with her realized what was happening and allowed herself to laugh at her male teammates along with the other two rogue nins and her sensei. All walked away in fits of laughter leaving behind two irate shinobi behind.

Naruto's eye twitched at his sensei's prank before smirking evilly as he got an idea "Hey Sasuke" He said slyly, the Uchiha in his irritated state did not catch the other tone of voice and replied with an angry "What?" As he watched the laughing group ahead of them slowly get farther and farther away from them. "Have I ever showed you my **Oiroke no Jutsu**?"

Before Sasuke could answer there was a poof from beside him, instinctively the boy turned to the source and found a blond woman standing in Naruto's place, wearing Naruto's maid outfit. "Ne, Sasuke-kun" She said seductively "Should we teach Kakashi-kun a lesson?" The raven haired genin smirked, "Just show me the hand-signs, Dobe"

* * *

The rest of Team 7 and the two rogue nins had finally managed to calm themselves down enough to set up camp, they had been walking for five minutes before deciding to stop and neither Sasuke and Naruto had caught up, Kakashi chuckled thinking the two were trying to find a way to undo the jutsu. It was fifteen minutes later that Sakura, Kakashi, Zabuza and Haku were sitting down and eating their dinner that all heard a rustle from the bushes, Kakashi sniggered a little "Finally decided to come back Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun?"

"Ne, that was a very mean trick, Sensei" all froze as they heard a sensual female voice instead of the low rough tone of a male, Kakashi spun around ready to be attacked only to get a face full of…breasts? Arms wrapped around his person, looking up he saw a very attractive raven haired female who's breasts were at least a D-cup. And oddly enough she was wearing what he had transfigured Sasuke's clothing to look like "S-Sasuke?" His managed to squeak, before he felt another presence make itself known by sitting on his lap and grabbing at his arms

"Ne, Sasu-chan's right, Kaka-sensei, that was soo mean" Kakashi whirled his head around bewildered as he saw a busty very attractive blonde on his lap, wearing the same attire as Naruto, while squishing his arm between her generous chest and pouting up at him. "N-Naruto?" The pitch of his voice going higher. Sakura by this point had fainted from seeing the scene and Haku followed right after her not being able to take so much blood rushing to his head. Zabuza on the other hand was grinning like a mad man.

"Ne Sensei," Naruto started mischievously while at the same time looking very much like she was going to do something naughty, behind him Sasuke had the same expression and continued Naruto's sentence, leaning down and whispering huskily into Kakashi's ear "Please, teach us something"

"We're _very_ _good_ learners, we promise" Naruto continued in the same tone, burying Kakashi's arm deeper into her bust, the male whimpered, trying to will away the sexual images that came into his mind. Sasuke and Naruto's eyes met each other for a split second before giving barely noticeable nods.

"O-ne-gai, Sen-sei" Sasuke begged softly into the older mans ear, pushing Kakashi over the edge and into a massive nosebleed and blissful unconsciousness. Sasuke and Naruto unwrapped themselves from their Sensei's unmoving form and snorted

"Pathetic"

Naruto shook her head pitifully "I really did expect more from the pervert."

Both turned to Zabuza who was now bursting into fits of laughter, both henged girls grinned at each other joining Zabuza in his laughter before eating their meals, once the rogue nin had calmed down he straightened himself and addressed the two genin "If things are like this back where you came from I think I'm going to like Konoha"

They all grinned.

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**I hope you liked the chapter! Nothing overly dramatic but I decided to put the prank in their just for you guys XD**

**Up next our heroes go back to Konoha! See the results of e-bay! Will the Sandaime consent to Zabuza and Haku's arrival? And Iruka's back!**

**All next time!**

**Ja ne!

* * *

**

**Shika XD**


	14. Authors Note

**Okay I realise I haven't updated in god knows how long, but unfortunately my laptop has recently crashed, halfway through writing my stories. I've been told the motherboard of my laptop has given out, but thankfully everything I've got saved on the laptop is still there and attainable, I just need to get everything saved onto a harddrive and then transfer it all onto my new computer. Bad news is that I won't be getting a new computer until well into February due to my phone also getting smashed and my needing to save up for a new one.**

**You're all probably thinking why not just use the computer you're on now, well that's because it's not my computer, it belongs to someone else and because I don't have any of my stories with me, so I just want to tell you guys all of this because, even though I haven't updated these stories are NOT abandoned. They're just temporarily on hold.**

**Until the next time**

**Shika**

**P.s. I want to give my sincere apologies to kuroishuuha especially, I know you've been looking forward to my update, but this is making it near impossible for me. Once again really sorry.**


	15. Chapter 15

**OMG I UPDATED! Okay~ So I'm really really really really really slow at updating, truthfully I got this chapter out before but people started complaining about a couple of things (and really no hard feelings, was just trying out something new), obviously it didn't work out so well considering peoples reactions to it so I took the chapter down edited it and now I'm posting it back up again!**

**Hopefully it turns out better this time around.**

**Story so far: **Naruto's come back to the past with Kyuubi's help, his intentions are to stop Konoha's destruction and at the same time save Sasuke from self destruction. He's allied himself with Itachi, Zabuza and Haku, who all know of Naruto's situation along with Kakashi and the Sandaime. Naruto has also allied himself with Hiruma, trading blackmail material for weapons and information against enemies and allies alike. Team 7 are on there way back from the wave mission and the pranking war between Kakashi and Sakura & Sasuke and Naruto is still going strong.

* * *

Team 7 along with Zabuza and Haku walked along the dirt covered road, Sasuke and Naruto had released their henge upon getting their clothes back from a sour Kakashi, who decided he would rather give the genins their clothes back then die from blood loss. Zabuza was still chuckling every now and then at the stunt the two Konoha shinobi had pulled on their sensei.

Sakura, understandably, was a bit traumatized after the incident and had not spoken to Sasuke for a while now, his actions throughout the entire mission had caused her to rethink everything she knew about him, getting more and more depressed the further she pondered on it. Haku was by her side, sweatdropping at the girls depressed mood and tried desperately to cheer her up, though with little success. Sasuke on the other hand, was as happy as he could be, not that he showed it.

Naruto was grinning alongside Zabuza, both talking about the oddities of Konoha, Kakashi would pitch in his own opinion every now and then however would mostly keep to his sour self and read his R-rated dreams*.

Without any civilians slowing them down the group of shinobi (plus Sakura)** made it back to Konoha in just two days time. Sakura gave a sigh of relief as she saw the gates come into view on the horizon, "Finally! We're home!" She moaned in exhaustion, behind her Kakashi gave a small chuckle, yet couldn't help but agree with the younger kunoichi. _'It's been a weird couple of weeks'_ He thought, returning to his novel.

"Ne, ne, Zabu-chan! Where do you think you and Haku-chan will be staying?" Naruto piped up after Sakura, the thought occurring to him.

Sakura chocked on her saliva at the state of address used, similarly Sasuke, quite uncharacteristically stumbled mid-step, Kakashi on the other hand gave no indication that he had heard the young blond, while Haku looked on with curiosity as to what the answer to the question asked would be.

Zabuza growled threateningly at the hyperactive blond, who either didn't care or was too thick to notice, because Naruto just kept smiling up at the ninja. Noticing his intimidation tactic was not working Zabuza settled for gruffly replying a short "Not sure."

"Sou desu ka…" Naruto replied going quiet, a thoughtful expression on his features, "Then do you want to stay at my apartment until you can find a place to stay permanently?"

Kakashi looked sharply over at Naruto from the corner of his eye, the blond ignored the pointed glance with a smile, rather seeming to favor focusing his attention on Zabuza's answer. Said man was giving the blond a curious and suspicious expression, it was a odd combination and looked startlingly comical on the man, Naruto had to fight not to laugh outright at it.

"Sure thing gaki."

Naruto gave a wide smile "Great!" he faltered a bit, before replaying the words spoken in his head, a small light bulb went off in his head "Who're you calling gaki, mayuge resufurīku!"

The group chuckled at Naruto's actions, walking like that happily until two suddenly froze in their tracks, an ominous aura suddenly running down their spines. Kakashi stopped noticing his students suddenly stopped as well "Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun, Is there something wrong?"

"Ē to, I'm not sure… Sasuke?" Naruto turned to his male team-mate silently questioning if he had felt the same thing. The Uchiha silently nodded, searching his surroundings, hand slowly inching towards a hidden kunai.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, putting his novel away, but before he could do anything else the ground started vibrating, small rocks and pebbles on the path suddenly jumping.

Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto had all seen it enough times to know what it was,

"It can't be…"

"…not possible…"

"…shouldn't even know we're here..."

Suddenly, from the horizon, where Konoha's gates were, came hordes of screaming fangirls, hearts in their eyes, photographs and banners in their hands, and confessions pouring from their mouths. Idly in the corner they registered the guards at the gates yelping in shock and fright before leaping over the ledge, out of the way and into safety.

"SASUKE-KUN~!3"

"NARUTO-KUN~!3"

Both boys paled, life draining from their faces, the mob was huge, bigger then Sasuke and Naruto had ever seen, but that wasn't what had frightened them, there on the enormous banner the girls were holding were the simple words 'SASUNARU YAOI FANCLUB' in big bold letters. Accompanying the words was a picture of a half-naked Sasuke straddling Naruto, both boys wearing a befuddled expression.

"Nē, you two should probably run" no sooner had Kakashi finished the sentence then both shinobi took off in a sprint down the opposite direction of Konoha.

"I'm going to kill Sakura" Sasuke growled.

"Where the hell did she get that picture?" Naruto cried, yelping as he noticed the girls steadily gaining on them, making both run faster then they ever done before.

Both raced away from Konoha thinking '_Sakura is dead when I get back!_'

Meanwhile back with the rest of the group, Zabuza whistled appreciatively at the amount of fans, "Sugoi! They're going to need a miracle to get out of that one, eh Haku"

Haku lay on the side of the road disheveled from being knocked about by the fans, Sakura clinging desperately to his frame, absentmindedly he nodded. Kakashi looked back at the trail left and giggled, '_Oh the wonders of e-bay, Sakura should stay clear of Naruto and Sasuke for a couple of days._'

Taking out his novel, Kakashi gave another giggle before continuing once more towards his home, everyone else eventually following, Sakura a bit happier then the rest.

* * *

Time Skip ~ That Afternoon

* * *

"Ah, now that all are present, we can continue with the proceedings" Sandaime announced staring over at the tousled appearances of the two male genin, both twitched at random intervals, had bruises and bite marks all over there bodies, rope burns around their wrists, lipstick trails disappearing under their shirts and a haunted light in their eyes.

Over along the other side of the room Sakura and the missing nins held back their laughter, only Kakashi held his solemn silence '_The poor souls…_' he thought not lifting his eyes from his book, '_I give them a week before they crack_'

Clearing his throat, all eyes went back to the Sandaime once more, the mood suddenly more solemn and serious then before "First order of business, missing-nins Momochi Zabuza and Haku, I've been informed you two seek refuge in my village."

Naruto glanced at said males from the corner of his eyes, also catching the small nod Kakashi gave the Sandaime, the blond wondered when it was that Kakashi informed the Sandaime of the situation. Zabuza gave a firm nod to the Hokage, not being undone by the harsh stare, Haku faded behind his expressionless façade of a tool and looked as if he wasn't about to resurface any time soon.

"Under any other circumstance I would have been disinclined to acquiesce this request***," Sandaime started, both shinobi stayed ever motionless at the statement waiting for the Hokage to continue. "However, due to certain votes of confidence and general proposals been made clear, the decision was made final that the admittance of missing-nins Momochi Zabuza and Haku into Konohagakure, though unnecessary, would prove advantageous."

Sakura suddenly let out a breath she had not known she had been holding, on the other side of her Haku's stiff posture relaxed slightly. Sasuke gave no outward reaction to the news and continued his brooding silence with the same coolness he did every matter; the stiff atmosphere did not disappear completely still lingering in the shoulders and postures of the remaining occupants in the room. They, unlike the younger shinobi and kunoichi had had further experience with politics and had caught the underlining message.

_(You will be allowed into the village should you abide by our orders and give us what we want)_

Naruto understood the Sandaime's cautiousness and was not surprised at the specific act, what he could not wrap his mind around was the 'general proposals been made clear'.

'_Proposals made clear…as in already discussed? But that would mean Zabuza and the old man have already been in contact with one another…_' Naruto looked on between the Hokage and the former missing nin,

'_Not only that, but Zabuza would have had to agree to the terms and conditions as well. As far as I know the guards at the gates made no distinct actions to stop them from entering the village as well and they certainly would have been inclined to, especially with Zabuza's reputation. The old man knew they were coming._'

Naruto snuck a peek at his Jōnin-sensei, '_I suppose it's possible that Kakashi acted as a mediator between them, he had been in touch with the old man without my knowledge after all, and it's not too difficult to believe someone like him would be able to pull it off without suspicion. But this means I've been too lax in my proceedings, I'll have to be more aware of my surroundings from now on._'

Pushing those thoughts away to the side of his mind for the moment, Naruto snapped back to reality just in time to hear Zabuza thank the Sandaime after, Naruto assumed, accepting the admittance and in turn the conditions laid out before him.

The Sandaime nodded, a thin trail of smoke rising from his brown pipe, "Then we shall proceed to discussing your lodgings until Konoha is able to find the both of you a suitable and permanent residence."

"Anou sa," The Hokage turned to Naruto "Ojī-chan, I've already welcomed Zabuza-kun" Naruto stumbled over the suffix a bit but decided to spare Zabuza in front of the village leader "and Haku-chan to stay in my apartment for the time being until more appropriate lodgings have been found."

Naruto gave a grin as Sandaime raised an eyebrow at his confession and stayed silent for a few seconds, contemplating what he just heard before finally speaking up "I wasn't aware you had the space, but if you find yourself able then it should be no problem."

Naruto gave a grin responding with a hyperactive "Hai, Ojī-chan!"

Team 7 and the newly admitted residents of Konoha found themselves sweatdropping at the child, not knowing what to make of him. The Sandaime simply continued smiling at his youngest(?) shinobi.

"That being settled we shall continue with the mission reports" Everyone sagged a little at the announcement, only Naruto had the honesty to groan at their predicament.

Time Skip ~ Later that night

"Kami I thought we'd never get out of there!" Zabuza grumbled following Naruto up a flight of stairs. The blond grinned at the comment, his hands linked behind his head as he lead the way to his apartment.

"The old man gets like that sometimes but he's a really good guy! He knows heaps of ninjutsu and is really strong! But I'm gonna be heaps stronger when I take his place as Hokage." He declared nodding self assuredly as he did so.

"Ho?" Zabuza raised a brow giving the blond an inquisitive look. "Yep! Not only that, but I'm gonna be the strongest Hokage their ever was, dattebayo!"

The new resident of Konoha snorted, "That's great kid, but I would appreciate your statement more if you could get this guy out of my ass." He growled as he pointed behind him to a certain grey-haired sensei, Haku was treading along next to him a smile on his soft features.

Kakashi answered before Naruto could "I'm doing no harm"

"You're annoying me, that's harm enough"

"That's not fair, I just happened to be walking the same way as you guys" his eye in an downturned 'U'.

"Oh? And I suppose you just happened to be climbing the same stairwell as us too." Zabuza added sarcastically.

"I wanted to explore this part of the village, I don't get to see much of it, and what better time then to go with someone who lives there!" Kakashi refuted happily, just as they reached the door of Naruto's apartment.

"Well you won't be able to see much of it indoors, so why not be a big boy and go exploring without holding mummy's hand."

"Hmm, that's a good idea unfortunately I suddenly got really tired, maybe I should sit down with you guys for a while!"

"OR you could get your ass to your own place, scarecrow"

"But it's no fun alone, besides Naru-chan doesn't mind, do you Naru-chan?"

"Geh?" Naruto blanched at being pulled into the argument and looked over from Kakashi's smiling face towards Zabuza's irritated features. Haku sweat dropped at the boys circumstance.

"There! See, he agrees!" Kakashi exclaimed happily.

"He didn't say shit you bloody scarecrow!"

"Maa maa, what's with all the shouting? We'll wake the neighbours, perhaps we should take this inside?"

"Why you..!" Zabuza rounded on Kakashi, who stared back a bored expression seemingly coming over his features, although you couldn't really tell the difference with his mask in place. Grabbing the front of the Jōnin-sensei's vest Zabuza pulled the male closer to him roughly fully intent on pulverising him or at the very least threaten him till he was crying for his mother, until Naruto stepped in.

"Oi, oi, calm down minna-san. Zabuza-kun I don't mind, really and Kaka-sensei means no harm."

"Naruto-kun is right Zabuza-sama, it has been a long day, perhaps it would be best to retire earlier then usual." Haku suggested his soft voice attracting the attention of the swordsman like no one else could. Naruto had already opened the door and was now beckoning the two adults in. Giving Kakashi one last sneer Zabuza let go of the vest and stormed in through the door followed closely by his apprentice, Kakashi gave his student a cheerful smile which was returned with a raised brow.

"Should I ask?"

"Hmm? Ask about what Naru-chan?" Kakashi asked innocently. Naruto's eyebrow twitched.

"Iie, yappari iidesu"

"Then shall we go inside?" Kakashi asked motioning for Naruto to go in before him, the blond gave one last suspicious look before sighing in defeat and entering, annoying or not the guy was still his sensei. Zabuza had already made himself comfortable on the lumpy lounge placed around the centre of the room. Haku was bustling around trying to get all their belongings sorted, catching sight of Naruto the male asked "Would you mind showing me to our room Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded giving Kakashi an expression that clearly told him to behave, Kakashi himself did nothing but smile and give a nonchalant air about him, doing nothing to ease Naruto's worries '_My apartment is going to be obliterated before a minute passes, I knew it was a bad idea to have Kakashi-sensei come along…that damn pervert, just what on earth is he up too?_'

"Ne, this way Haku-chan!" Naruto said cheerfully before leading him down the hall way towards the private quarters of the apartment. Kakashi watched them disappear into the hallway before walking over towards the couch Zabuza occupied and sat down neatly beside the man watching the other flick through channels on the small television that occupied the space. All was silent for a few moments before Zabuza finally had enough "What are you here for you damned scarecrow?"

Kakashi didn't bother glancing up from his novel "Hmm? I thought we already established that I'm here to take a look around," He replied his usual bored tone.

Zabuza growled, "You know for someone I was beginning to like, you're really starting to piss me off."

"How flattering Zabu-chan! But unfortunately I strictly stick to melons and eyebrows" nodding solemnly Kakashi continued "I'm sure you'll find someone more suited to you….without eyebrows…or with them! Whichever you prefer, I'm not going to judge. Eh? Zabu-chan your eye seems to be twitching uncontrollably, perhaps you should get that checked out?"

Said swordsman glared so hard at the Jōnin one would think Kakashi would combust into tiny particles of ash at any moment. "Alright damned scarecrow what the fuck are you up to?" he snarled fiercely, flipping onto Kakashi and once again grabbing him by the front of his vest. Having no choice Kakashi ripped his gaze from the novel and levelled his coal eyes onto the raging form of Zabuza.

"Just conducting a test. It's called 'What does it take to crack a missing-nin called Zabu-chan'"

Zabuza growled, having had enough the swordsman pulled a fist back intent on knocking Kakashi's own eyebrows off his face, however the Jōnin reacted at the exact same moment having expected Zabuza's reaction. Disposing of the novel Kakashi shifted his position to counter to Zabuza's attack, both attacks would have collided had it not been for Naruto and Haku coming out to see what the commotion was about.

Before Naruto could so much as gasp Haku was between both shinobi blocking each attack, "Zabuza-sama, I beg you, stop this!" desperation seeped into the boys tone as he gazed into his masters eyes, he had just gotten to Konoha, he didn't want to leave so soon afterwards.

"Kakashi-sensei! What are you doing!" Naruto demanded, stalking up to the older man and leading him out of the apartment by the arm, Kakashi and Zabuza took no notice of either pupil opting instead to glare at each other.

When Naruto finally had the ninja outside he slammed the door shut behind him leaving the new residents alone inside to talk. Having done that Naruto whirled around to face his sensei, confusion and annoyance evident in the lines of his frown, clearly trying to make sense of what was happening. What was Kakashi doing?

"Kaka-sensei" Naruto started furiously, fully intending to rip the man a new one before he saw his stoic expression, holding in the rant he had just formulated Naruto heaved a sigh before messing his hair in frustration. Giving another sigh Naruto looked back up at his mentor "I really don't know what you're thinking Kaka-chan"

Kakashi who had stayed silent throughout the whole of the boys performance just shrugged, going to grab for his novel before realising he had left it inside and mentally cursed himself. Naruto, noticing the action mumbled "I'll return it to you later."

Kakashi nodded his head in thanks and both went silent once more. The smaller of the two turned his head skyward before turning back to Kakashi "Ne, shall we go up to the roof? Its more comfortable then standing in the hallway."

Kakashi did nothing but make his way over to the staircase, Naruto watched him go, thinking the Kakashi in front of him reminded him a lot of the young Uchiha. The blonde shivered '_Don't even think it Naruto, it would be bad for all of us, the world has enough Uchiha's in it._'

Once on the roof Kakashi took to leaning on the wall besides the entrance while Naruto bounded over to the edge and looked out over to the horizon where the vast village stretches. The copy-nin watched him soundlessly, they both stayed that way for a few minutes before Kakashi broke the silence.

"I don't like it."

Naruto stirred from his musings and turned back to look at his sensei, his head tilted to one side, showing his confusion at the statement.

'_It? I thought it was Zabu-chan, but maybe I read the situation too fast, after all Kaka-sensei had no problems with Zabu-chan on the way here._' He stayed silent however, waiting for Kakashi to explain what he meant.

Kakashi, on his part seemed to understand that the blonde didn't know what he was talking about and expanded on his thoughts, "They're not the same people you knew before Naruto-kun, and even before you only knew two of them briefly, you're a shinobi, obviously you realise that not everyone can be trusted. Why do you trust these two so far as to let them into your home?" Kakashi's voice gradually grew louder as he continued "They're former missing-nins Naruto-kun! Haku-kun may be a little better, but Zabuza is a ruthless killer! You can't change that with just one sentence! Or one act of kindness! He's been living that way since he started his career as a shinobi, maybe even longer! I can't just stand by and let my student, sensei's son, take them both in like it's nothing! You may be fine with this and Hokage-sama may not want to do anything about it, but I will _not_ allow one of my students to live under the same roof as two fomer missing-nins." He finished vehemently, breathing heavily from working himself up.

Naruto stood off to the side gazing at the Jōnin a little surprised at the sudden outburst '_Uwaa, how out of character for Kaka-sensei_'

"Maa na, I really worried you, ne sensei?" Naruto gave a childish grin, rubbing his nose in slight embarrassment at the display of emotion for his safety, stopping the action he turned and walked straight up to the other male until he was directly one centimetre away from him, Kakashi attempted to back up a bit at his students proximity only to bump into the wall behind him. Looking back at his student he turned his head just in time to get a full dose of Naruto's punch.

Kakashi's eyes widened in slight bewilderment "Kaka-chan while I thank you for worrying about me, you seem to be forgetting one small fact" Kakashi, who was still in shock at the unsuspected action could do nothing more then turn to look at his pupil "While I may be in a considerably weakened state in this 12-year-old body, I can still kick even _your_ ass. I think I can handle a couple of ex-missing-nins, don'tcha think?" The blonde gave a cheeky grin.

The older man blinked staying silent for a moment obviously thinking over the blondes statement before his eye turned into a downturned 'U', "Ah, my mistake. Gomen Naru-chan, I'll take my leave now, remember to give me back my novel"

Giving a satisfied smile Naruto nodded and watched as Kakashi left bounding from roof to roof, however he managed to hear Kakashi gleefully shout something out to him before being completely out of earshot

"Good luck with Zabuza! He might be destroying your apartment in his anger!"

The blonde paled dramatically hand freezing mid-wave. Damn Kakashi, guessing it was pay back for punching his sensei.

True to Kakashi's word Zabuza did indeed destroy most of the apartment in his blind rage, Haku spent the whole night apologising profusely as he helped clean the damage but Naruto simply waved the apologies off after the first dozen.

* * *

Time Skip ~ Days Later

* * *

One morning Naruto could be found resting on one of the many open fields in Konoha, simply gazing at the clouds slowly drifting by and trying to make shapes out of them, at a rare moment he'd be able to make a animal or object out of one of them, but that didn't happen very often. He had been given a day off, something he felt he hadn't had in a very very long time, so he was using it to the fullest and squeeze every drop of laziness out of the day, the blonde contemplated on finding the young Nara heir (a.k.a Prince of Laziness, only bested by the King of Laziness, Shikaku Nara), however he decided that finding the heir would be considered doing something active and opted it to 'troublesome' and went out to cloud watch instead.

Just as Naruto was getting to drift off to sleep there was a sudden shift in the air, someone was travelling towards him at incredible speed. Naruto shot up from his laying position to a sitting one only to find a small boy with big hazel eyes and spiky hair smiling down nervously at him, a scroll grasped tightly in his fists, dust was still billowing behind him from being disturbed.

Blinking owlishly at the figure for a second, Naruto had to wait for his mind to catch up and process what he was seeing before his bewildered expression turned into a massive grin "Sena-kun! What brings you here? I wasn't expecting anything from Yoi-chan so early."

The poor boy seemed to hyperventilate at the blatant disrespectful term of address, however he seemed to regain his composure after 30 seconds "H-H-H-Hi-Hiruma-san w-wanted me to give you this." Sena managed to stutter out and thrusted the scroll in Naruto's direction (N/A: I said he composed himself I didn't say he did it well). The blonde gave another huge smile, "Thanks Sena-kun!" he said while taking the scroll, mentally he also praised Hiruma's genius at using Sena as a messenger…'_That sounded a bit cruel, but still, you can't infiltrate something you can't catch._'

Naruto unfurled the scroll hearing the soft sound of wind rushing by as Sena exited the vicinity. Unlike what Hiruma first thought when Naruto stepped into his store, the blond hadn't wanted to buy any type of weaponry or materials from the shopkeeper(/part-time demon). What he wanted to buy was information and he paid and would continue to pay handsomely for it.

Being from the Jōmae Village in the Land of Keys Hiruma was an expert in espionage in order to gain information for negotiations with larger, more powerful nations, although in Hiruma's case to use it for his own advantage. Ninja in this village seem to be specifically trained in gaining information while giving none in return. Hiruma was definitely the best of the best in this case.

Although his shop was small Yoichi Hiruma was the best known weapons supplier across all nations, what Naruto wanted to know was, 'Who's been buying?', How much?' and of course 'Were there any rumours of war?'. Basically Naruto wanted Hiruma as an inside man.

The genin barely had time to skim through the first line before a familiar voice carried his way "Naruto-kun!"

Naruto glanced up in surprise, shoving the scroll in the pocket of his jacket, gaining his bearings his eyes settled on his old sensei, "Iruka-sensei!" a full blown grin dominating his features as he tackled the other man into a bear hug.

Iruka laughed at the child's antics and hugged him back "It's good to see you too Naruto-kun", Naruto directed his grin towards the older man who in turn asked the one question Naruto was always happy to hear "Shall we go get some ramen? My treat."

Naruto's features suddenly hardened, looking directly at Iruka he answered "Zettai!"

Iruka sweat dropped, '_No need to be so serious._'

Once they were comfortably seated at the and Naruto had gotten his meal Iruka began the conversation "Ne, Naruto-kun"

The blonde looked up with wide innocent eyes, a strand of noodle dangling from his overstuffed mouth, swallowing with little difficulty (which Iruka thought he should be commended for…or at least given to Konoha's research laboratory to see what exactly Naruto's stomach and oesophagus were made of). "Hai?"

"How are you finding your new team?"

Naruto pondered the question while slurping down the noodle soup in front of him "Anou…it's great!" Naruto grinned up at a surprised Iruka who smiled warmly "Sou, yokatta."

The Jinchurriki glanced at the chunin questioningly "Ah, iya, anou…maa na….I was worried?" Iruka shot a helpless smile towards the blonde who blinked for a couple of seconds at the sight of his old academy teacher scratching his cheek in a sheepish manner.

For a split second Naruto's eyes softened, letting memories of the past wash over him, remembering when days like this had been all that he knew at the age of 12, before the screams, before the charred flesh, before the blood, before the carnage, before anything had ever happened.

**"Kit."**

Naruto snapped out of his daze and grinned widely "No need to worry Iruka-sensei! My teams great! Although Sasuke-teme can be really annoying at times, he's still super good with pranks." Naruto nodded affirmatively to himself, while Iruka blinked in surprise '_Sasuke…pranks?_'

"Ah! But don't tell him I said that! The teme will get a bigger head then he already has!" Naruto pleaded, however he didn't stop talking to get an answer from the other shinobi.

"Sakura-chan has also gotten really strong, but she can be really annoying sometimes,"

'_Eh? Sakura, annoying?_'

"She's definitely started a pranking war with me and Sasuke-teme after what she did the last time! We'll definitely get her back, just you wait Iruka-sensei! We'll defend our honour!" Naruto exclaimed with so much conviction that Iruka could do nothing but nod and agree.

"Ah..h-hai…" '_Although I have no clue what you're talking about._'

"But the best part is Kaka-chan! Ne, ne Iruka-sensei! Kaka-chan is super strong! And he has the Sharingan! And he can do heaps of jutsu's! AND he can make bad people go flying! He's super amazing! And although he's not very good at pranks, he's still really cool and I like him a lot! He's definitely someone I want to protect, dattebayo!"

Iruka gazed at his ex-student as he spoke of someone he didn't know with such happy and fond expression. This was his student, the one that was so often mistreated, misguided, misjudged, the one that was more often then not to naive to see the real intentions of others. Although Naruto could be quite surprising at times, he, more often then not, needed something shoved in his face to see the general picture. And then suddenly the very same student goes on speaking of someone that obviously found his way into Naruto's heart without Iruka's knowledge made him uneasy…Iruka didn't like it. Not one bit.****

"But, Naruto-kun, there must be something you don't like about your new sensei…" Iruka suggested innocently.

"Hmm, nope! I like him!" Iruka face-vaulted.

Meanwhile as he walked along the crowded streets, Kaksahi glanced up from his novel in surprise as his stomach gave a rumble, looking up he checked the position of the sun for the time. '_I didn't expect it to be this late, I lost track of time._' He thought to himself as he glanced around the area.

'_Not to mention…exactly where am I?_' A sweat drop formed on the back of his head, before his ear caught the slight mention of his student's name being called. Curious he hid in the shadows and listened in.

"Nothing? Nothing at all? Think really really hard about this Naruto-kun. Is there anything at all you don't like about your new sensei." Iruka asked seriously making Naruto turn to face him and Kakashi to raise a brow at the topic of conversation '_Heh…this is interesting_'. Putting his 'thinking face' on Naruto continued.

"Well…"

"Yes, you know you can tell me anything" Iruka prompted, Kakashi twitched '_What's with this guy…I don't like his tone_'.

"…he's a pervert, but most men are so I can't really fault him for that." Naruto said, Kakashi smiled into his book at his cute student's response. Iruka's eyes gleamed for a second before he spoke

"Iie! You can! You absolutely can!" Iruka said, crossing his arms across his chest. '_Eh?_' Kakashi blinked, suddenly getting more annoyed, '_Who is this guy?_'.

"Hmm, really? Does that mean I have to fault you for being a pervert too Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked genuinely confused "after all you did fall for my **Oiroke no Jutsu**."

Iruka froze, "Ah…."

Kakashi grinned underneath his mask, _'Naru-chan is definitely getting a treat after this. My student is so cute!_'

"Iya! My mistake, you can't fault someone for something they can't control!" Iruka amended quickly, Naruto glanced questioningly at the academy teacher "Neh, Iruka-sensei you're acting weird today."

"Iie! I'm fine."

"...Un, if you say so."

'_Iruka, huh? Well, might as well see what this guy looks like while getting some lunch._' Pushing himself from the wall he entered the store and greeted the store owner with a smile "One miso ramen, oji-san" he ordered simply, by this time he had captured both occupants' attention.

"Kaka-chan!" Naruto launched himself from his chair and wrapped around Kakashi's waist in a bear hug, patting him on the head Kakashi simply smiled down at his student. Meanwhile Iruka surveyed the sight before him calculatingly '_How long was he there?_'

The chunin got his answer when Kakashi threw a smirk his way, Iruka's eye twitched in irritation '_That…!_'

"Ne Iruka-sensei! This is Kaka-chan! My Jōnin sensei!" Naruto grinned, snapping both remaining shinobi out of their staring match and focused their attention on the blond in the middle.

"Ah, is that so, but Naruto-kun, you should address your Jōnin sensei with more respect and not so familiarly and besides your ramen will get cold if you stay over there too long."

Naruto, who was about to refute Iruka's statement suddenly gasped as he was reminded of the sweet tasting ramen and ran back over to Iruka;s side "Arigatou for reminding me, Iruka-sensei!" going on about the horror that was to ignore the freshly made ramen that was placed in front of him and continued to eat.

All the while missing the smirk Iruka threw back to the Jōnin, who retaliated by sitting on the other side of Naruto and commenting nonchalantly "I don't mind at all of the way my student addresses me, ah by the way, _Naru-chan_," Iruka's eye twitched "I was thinking of teaching you a new jutsu soon."

Naruto's gaze shot up from his meal and glanced at the Jōnin with stars in his eyes, his whole visage lit up like christmas had come early "Honto? Yatta! Kaka-chan, you're the best! Can we start now? Can we? Please~!"

"Well, I don't see why no-"

"Naruto-kun you haven't finished your meal yet, you wouldn't want my money to go to waste would you?" Iruka interrupted before the Jōnin could finish his sentence. Kakashi glared over Naruto's head at Iruka, while said blonde looked over to the ramen sitting on the counter and back to Iruka, with a determined expression "Yosh! Ramen first!"

Iruka gave a satisfied smirk ignoring the glare directed at him until Kakashi pulled Naruto's chopsticks away from his mouth as he was about to take a bite "But you know Naru-chan, eating too much ramen isn't healthy for you, you should probably stop now, I can treat you to something else if you'd like."

Naruto went to answer but Iruka spoke before Naruto could, taking the blond by the arm Iruka pulled the genin closer towards him "I think I can tell whether _my_ student has had enough ramen to eat."

Kakashi grabbed Naruto's other arm, emitting a small "Eh?" from the blonde and pulled the genin away from Iruka and closer to himself "I insist! You must be tired of taking care of _my_ Naru-chan for the day."

Iruka's eye twitched at the sentence "Oh not at all Jōnin-san" he said, voice frosty as he pulled Naruto over his way again.

"I must insist, Chunin-san"

"Iie! I would much rather you not."

Both shinobi glared at each other, seemingly forgetting about the other three occupants in the room, who stared at the confrontation with confusion, wariness and foreboding. Just as this was going on Sasuke stepped into the shop having heard the commotion from outside and sensed the chakra-spike and killing intent rise in the area, looking around he glanced at the scene in front of him in confusion.

"Ne dobe, what's going on?"

"Eh? Sasuke-teme, when did you get here?"

"Just now, why are Iruka-sensei and Kaka-sensei glaring at each other."

"Moi…I don't know, it's really confusing all of a sudden Iruka-sensei was talking about how Kaka-chan could be bad and then when Kaka-chan came both of them started being really nice to me and Iruka-sensei said I have to eat my ramen and then Kaka-chan offered to teach me a new jutsu and then Iruka-sensei said that eating my ramen was important but Kaka-chan interrupted and said that training was more important and then suggested that I should eat somewhere else with him. Mah, it's really confusing and I don't get it cause then they started to glare at each other!" Naruto explained frustrated.

Sasuke lifted a brow at both adults who were still glaring then turned back to Naruto '_Baka…_' He thought before getting an idea.

"Ne Naruto" Sasuke said loud enough to gain the attention of everyone in the ramen stand.

"Hai?"

"Wanna know what my plan for revenge against Sakura is?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Well then lets go" Sasuke offered his hand to Naruto who took it without hesitation

'_Too easy_'

As Sasuke led the blond out of the stand the raven-haired male threw a smirked back at the two shinobi who were now glaring daggers at the prodigy '_That little!_' But by the time they both recovered it was too late and both boys were gone.

* * *

Time Skip ~ Minutes Later

* * *

Naruto blinked.

Sasuke stared.

Naruto blinked again.

Sasuke continued to stare.

"Really?"

"Hai."

"Are you sure?"

"Would I suggest it if I wasn't?"

"No, it's just that…."

Raised eyebrow.

"Iie…as long as you're sure…?"

"I'm sure."

"H-hai…"

Sasuke stared, Naruto blinked.

"This course of action will have repercussions, you realise that right?"

"Hai."

"You know we have different options."

"I know."

"But this is what you want to do."

"I already said so didn't I?"

"Yeah, I know that but….Why?" Naruto blurted not able to contain his bewilderment. Sasuke merely shrugged and stated

"Because this will shatter her."

"Ah…you're cruel."

"I know."

Shaking his head Naruto decided it would best to change the topic of conversation, **"Kit, now wold probably be a good time to drop a reference about the Chunin exams."**

'_Un_', "Ne Sasuke-teme, have you heard anything about the Chunin-exams?"

**"BAKA you call that a reference! You useless Gaki!"**

'_SHUT IT YOU OVERGROWN MUTATED RABBIT!_'

**"I'M A FOX DAMN YOU! THE ALMIGHTY NINE-TAILED DEMON FOX!"**

'_DAMARU__! NO ONE CARES!_'

"Iie, I haven't. Why do you ask?" Sasuke asked, looking over at Naruto curiously. Naruto returned the gesture with a small shrug, casually stating "There is no reason. I just heard some rumours going around and thought you might have heard something also."

Sasuke gazed at his comrade for a small while before nodding and turning away, seemingly lost in thought. Naruto glanced at his comrade from the corner of his eye "Demo, I would want to be prepared whether the rumours are true or not." Sasuke turned back to the blonde who was nodding determinedly to himself, the raven haired boy gave a small smirk "Un" was all he said.

"But also Kaka-chan seems more inclined to throw us to the pack of wolves rather then train us in preparation." Naruto went on as an afterthought, Sasuke sweat dropped "…Yeah probably."

Silence reined over the two boys for a few more minutes before Naruto broke the silence.

"Neh Sasuke-teme….we might be in a bit of trouble."

"…Un, dobe"

"….Should we tell Sakura?"

"…Probably…teamwork and all."

"Right…."

"…"

"...are we going to tell her?"

"…..nope"

"Hehe…'kay"

Both boys stayed in each others company idly talking and planning their training strategies for the (maybe) upcoming chunin exams, Sasuke seemed to come up with the idea of training themselves should Kakashi not pick up his slack.

"Demo, you won't be able to learn a lot of new things by teaching yourself in a short amount of time, besides improving on the basics." Naruto said matter-of-factly.

Sasuke didn't reply, Naruto took the hint and suggested "How about we look for someone to teach us?"

The Uchiha turned to the blond questioningly "I mean, Kaka-chan can't know everything we want him to teach us, he's super-strong and all but maybe we should go to an expert on the art we want to learn?" Naruto continued animatedly "Like maybe Konoha has a few master swordsman, I also heard about this super-scary taijutsu specialist who has horrible fashion sense, an obscene amount of body hair and refers to himself as Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey!"

Sasuke sweat dropped again (he seemed to do that a lot around Naruto), "What are you saying?" The genin shook his head at his team mate before pondering over his words (the ones that made sense!). '_That…sounds like a good idea_' he thought hesitantly.

Naruto smiled before he found himself tackled to the floor with an armful of a brown-haired chibi. Naruto yelped in surprise flailing his arms, he shouted "Get it off me! Get it off me!"

Sasuke blinked unsure of what to make at the sight, too shocked to do anything else but watch.

"Naruto-nii-chan! It's me!"

Naruto stopped struggling when he heard the familiar voice and actually looked down to what was grabbing onto him "Oh! Konohamaru, it's you!"

Sasuke deadpanned "Dobe" he muttered before getting up and walking away, not bothering to turn around when he said "I'll see you later, dobe." '_I don't know why I take him seriously_.' he thought as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Ne Boss, who was that grumpy jerk?" Konohamaru asked glaring at the retreating figure in distain. "Eh, that's my team mate, Sasuke. He can be a teme sometimes but he's not all that bad."

The academy student looked back up at the blonde he was still sitting on "Boss! You're so kind!" He said stars in his eyes. Naruto adopted a haughty expression crossing his arms he nodded his head "You should do well to learn from me, my young student!"

"Yes boss!"

* * *

Time Skip ~ Minutes Later

* * *

Naruto and Konohamaru were met up with shortly by Moegi and Udon, who later convinced the blonde to play ninja with them halfway throughout the game Naruto got the tingling feeling that what he was doing was all very familiar. However he ignored it and continued playing with the three chibi's, that is until Sakura came into the picture and then things came crashing back down on him. '_Uh oh…_'

Within him Kyuubi gave a dark chuckle, ignoring it Naruto went about playing as normal, although Konohamaru sensed a small tenseness in the jinchūriki but he wrote it off as his boss taking him seriously.

Naruto stopped as Sakura approached the small group, effectively stopping the other three as well.

"Sakura!"

"Naruto…why are you, a ninja, _playing_ ninja…?"

"Eh? What's wrong with playing ninja?" Naruto asked seemingly genuinely confused.

Sakura stared finally managing to get out the word "Baka."

"Eh? Nani! Dōshite!" Naruto asked, acting devastated, Sakura just shook her head and then things went downhill from there, Naruto could have, if he wanted to, prevented things turning out the way they did however he needed to meet Gaara…

Naruto played his part…right up until Konohamaru was lifted from the ground by Kankurō

"OI! FATASS LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Okay so it wasn't all far off what he said in the original timeline, Kankurō glanced at Naruto sizing the boy up but didn't seem to find anything interesting and promptly ignored him "Hmm, lets play a little before the boss comes" He said smiling darkly down at the academy student who struggled even more to get out of the boys grasp.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the suggestion and ignored Temari who warned her brother about his actions, instead Naruto spoke up once again cutting the blonde female off "Oi, are you trying to start a war" Naruto growled, effectively freezing both sand genin who whirled around wide-eyed, silence filled the road for a moment as even Sakura and Konohamaru corps looked at Naruto curiously, before Kankurō finally recovered enough to shout a response

"What the hell is that supposed to mean gaki?" Naruto raised a brow at the insult, but ignored it, he had had worse, crossing his arms Naruto nodded at Konohamaru

"The boy you're holding up and are no doubt about to injure is Hokage-sama's grandson. Being in the village of Konoha with a pass to the chunin exams is one thing, however choosing to beat up the grandson of said village's leader is just begging for war, you being the Kazekage's son yourself should be aware of your actions and the concequeces that come with them." Naruto said, all seriousness returning to his features as he stared down at Kankurō willing a little of his chakra to seep out to back up his words.

Kankurō stared at the blonde and then back to the brat in his hands and sneered, he was about to let go when another voice appeared.

"Oi dobe, is everything alright?"

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried in relief.

Naruto didn't bother turning to face Sasuke opting to leave his gaze focused on the sand non in front of him "Fine teme, just warning someone that tearing-up leaves before they fall naturally isn't the best course of action in this village."

Sasuke stared at Naruto for a moment before accepting his words, looking towards Kankurō he spoke "I'd do what he says, beating up an academy student won't get you very far in terms of strength and reputation. Not here anyway." He said calmly, Kankurō gritted his teeth in anger, who the hell were these brats? Telling him what to do and how to think.

As if knowing where his thoughts were taking him Temari spoke up "Kankurō, just let the brat go we need to move before-"

"Kankurō, stop it." Sasuke kept himself from jumping and turned around eyes wide at the fact that someone was behind him and he didn't notice. All that were gathered turned to the tree where the voice made it's appearance, stepping out of the shadows and casually standing on a branch upside-down was Gaara. Kankurō immediately let go of Konohamaru who scampered off to Naruto's side, however no one noticed this as they all stared at the newcomer.

Not the least bit perturbed by the amount of attention he was getting Gaara continued "You're an embarrassment to our village."

"Gaara…Listen Gaara, they started it and-"

"Shut up, before I kill you"

Sakura shivered at the amount of killing intent that was backed up by those words '_but…aren't they team mates…?_'

"Alright I'm sorry.. I'm really sorry... really sorry!"

'_So he's there leader huh_' Sasuke thought, paying no mind to Kankurō's apologies. Gaara turned to face Sasuke who was closest to him "Sorry to you guys." He said before vanishing in a swirl of sand and reappearing in between his comrades, startling Sasuke, Sakura, the academy students and the rest of the sand nin.

"It looks like we got here early but we didn't come here to play around" Gaara said addressing his siblings, "I know that!" Came the indignant squawk from the red heads right. Not bothering to respond Gaara simply commanded them to get moving.

"Wait." Sasuke called, jumping down from his original position to standing next to Naruto "You with the gourd. What's your name?"

Gaara turned "Gaara of the desert."

Naruto kept himself from smiling, '_The chunin exams are starting._' Ignoring everyone else Naruto turned with narrowed eyes at three unfamiliar chakra signatures hiding in the trees, noticing they've been spotted the signatures shifted and disappeared but not before Naruto saw a glimpse of one of their hitai-ate.

'_The sound…so they're already moving…I didn't notice this before._'

**"That's because you were an incompetent brat before, you still are."** Kyuubi rumbled from within.

Naruto's eye twitched in irritation '_NO ONE ASKED YOU, YOU MUTATED RABBIT!_'

**"IT'S FOX DAMN YOU! THE ALMIGHTY DEMON FOX!"**

'_DAMARU! NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR IT!_'

"Naruto-nii-chan!" Naruto started and glanced down "Eh? What is it Konohamaru?"

"Everyone left already Naruto-nii-chan, so can you let go of me now?" True to the chibi's word the street was empty and everyone was gone. "Eh? Where did they all go?"

"I'll help you look for them boss!"

Time Skip ~ Minutes before

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk while puffing his tobacco, calmly observing the group of Jōnin in front of him, '_Kakashi-san is late again…' t_aking another glance around the room he narrowed his eyes thinking_ 'So is Iruka-san…interesting_.'

He turned back to the group as someone spoke out "Geez this is so annoying, why does Kakashi have to be late all the time." grumbled Asuma, putting his hands in his pockets after lighting another cigarette.

Kurenai smirked at the male "You'd think you would be used to it by now."

"Tch, I never said I wasn't, I'd just find it annoying that he is."

Kurenai rolled her eyes "That means you're still not used to it."

Asuma was about to retort when the subject of their conversation opened the door.

"I'm telling you it's all your fault!"

"And I'm telling you that it's not! You're the one that showed up uninvited!"

All present turned to the newly opened door, revealing not one but two shinobi. '_So that's where Iruka-san was…with Kakashi-san?_' Sarutobi thought, curiosity creeping up inside of him.

Kakashi glared at the chunin "You're the one who got competitive!"

"You're the one who fuelled it!"

"You're the one who let him slip through your grasp!"

"You're the one who wasn't watching either!"

"I'M TELLING YOU IT WAS YOUR FAULT!" They both shouted together, huffing and panting as they glared back at each other.

A throat clearing itself snapped both shinobi out of their glaring match long enough to notice that they had arrived at their destination….and that everyone was staring at them.

Iruka had enough sense to blush and apologise bowing slightly, while Kakashi just whipped out his porn book "Yo" He greeted with a wave of his hand. The Jōnins sweat dropped at the calm gesture, while Sarutobi tilted his hat to hide his smile. Iruka on the other hand glared once more at the Jōnin who noticed and glared back before both stomped off to opposite ends of the room and promptly ignored each other.

Meanwhile in everyone else's mind was the thought '_What the hell?_'

Clearing his throat again, Sarutobi both shook himself out of his stupor and got the attention of everyone else in the room "Now that we're all present," He gave a meaningful glance at Kakashi (who ignored it, most likely used to it by now) and Iruka (who blushed again). "You've been assembled for only one reason. It should be obvious by the members here."

"It's already that time." Kakashi commented offhandedly, looking up from his novel.

"It's already been reported to the other countries, I saw them in the village." affirmed Genma "So when is it then?"

"In a week." Sarutobi replied.

Murmurs erupted in the crowd, "That soon?" Someone commented, the Hokage ignored it and continued "Well, I'll announce it properly seven days from now. On the first day of the seventh moon…the chunin selection exam will commence!"

Varied reactions came from the crowd at the statement but it wasn't one they weren't all expecting. Seeing he still had their attention Sarutobi continued "Now, first we'll hear from those who are watching over the new Genins."

Three stepped forward.

"Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma, well…?" The question didn't need elaborating on but the old man did so anyway "Are there any Genins that you would like to enter into this chunin selection exam? I don't have to tell you but…after a benin has properly completed at least 8 missions they may take the exam if nominated by their sensei." Sarultobi paused taking a puff from his pipe "Of course taking more missions than that is the norm." He added.

'_He doesn't need to ask,_' Iruka thought '_they aren't ready_.'

"Now, starting with Kakashi…The Kakashi led Team 7 Uchiha Sasuke, Uzamaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura..."

"Under the name of Hatake Kakashi I nominate them to take the Chunin selection exam."

"What?" Was all Iruka could get out before Sarutobi continued and Kuranai said her piece. "The Kurenai led Team 8 Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino…"

"Under the name of Yuuhi Kurenai the same as to my left." She said indicating to Kakashi who took no notice.

"The Asuma led Team 10 Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji"

"Under the name of Sarutobi Asuma the same as to my left." Asuma replied.

"How rare." Sarutobi voiced as he stared at the Jōnin in front of him, although from what he heard from Naruto he was half expecting it.

"Hold on a second!" Iruka shouted unable to keep quiet any longer. Naruto's team getting elected was bad enough but half the genin he saw off as well?

Sarutobi turned his attention towards the academy teacher "What is it Iruka?"

"Hokage-sama, please let me have a word!" Iruka said anxiously, "I may be speaking out of terms here, but most of these nine were my students at the academy, of course they are very talented but it's too early to take the exam."

Iruka said seriously looking over to Kakashi, who stared right back "They need more experience, I can't understand the Jōnins reasoning."

"I became a chunin when I was six years younger then Naru-chan."

"Naruto is different from you! Are you trying to crush the kids-"

"We're doing nothing of the sort Iruka-san! I can understand you feelings, but-"

"Kakashi stop already…" Kurenai commented warily from next to him, unused to seeing both shinobi in front of her this riled up, as she glanced around she saw that everyone else was thinking the same thing, however Kakashi continued regardless.

"-stay out of this. They are no longer your students…right now they are my soldiers."

Iruka gritted his teeth in frustration, not being able to think of a reply to that.

'_Geez, this guy is getting so annoying, going and saying useless things…_' Asuma thought staring warily at Kakashi and Iruka. Sarutobi did nothing but watch the scene unfold for a few more moments before continuing with the meeting. Iruka, unable to do anything watched from his original spot at the back of the room.

"In that case, we'll continue…"

Iruka clenched his fists.

* * *

**Okay! So that's that! Another chapter down, it's a bit longer then usually but thats only because you guys deserve it for waiting so long XD**

* * *

* - I'm going by Australian ratings, R is usually used for adult only content, so that means either 18 or 21 year olds

** - I'm not having a stab at Sakura I just couldn't be bothered looking up the proper spelling for female ninjas

*** - Yes it's Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, deal with it :P

**** - It's the mother-hen! Run for your lives! xp

* * *

**Translations/Phrases**

anou = "well..." ('sa' is something you say when stalling)

arigatou gozaimasu = thank you very much (arigatou = thanks, thank you)

damaru = Shut up

demo/datte = but

dattebayo = "Believe it"

Dōshite = Why

Ē to = Uh

gaki = Brat

Hai = Yes

honto = really ("honto desu ka" = "really?")

iie, iya = no

Kami = God

maa, maa = "now, now"

maa na = I guess

mayuge resufurīku = As far as I can tell this means "no eyebrows"

minna = everyone

Nani = what

Nē = hey Sou desu ka? = Is that so?

sou ka = I see or "do I?" (the ka indicates a question)

sugoi = "amazing', 'wow', "fantastic", "awesome", etc.

Un = yeah

yappari iidesu = "Never mind"

yatta! = he/she/I did it!, or an exclamation of excitement/celebration

yokatta = an expression of relief, usually translates as "I'm so glad" or "thank goodness!"

zettai! = absolutely!

* * *

**Techniques**

**Oiroke no Jutsu - Sexy Technique**

* * *

**Until next time! **

**Ja ne**


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